Archive
2025
Policy Report Launch Event
22 December 2025
The Network for Clean Energy Transition: Research and Advocacy, in collaboration with SGAIN, held an event to celebrate the launch of our policy report From Solar Boom to Green Industrialization: Policy Pathways to Localizing Solar Value Chains in Pakistan on December 22.
The report presents a "5S Roadmap" (Strategy, Subsidies, Standards, SEZs, and Science & Knowledge to support investment, technology transfer, workforce development, and localization under CPEC 2.0 and the Green BRI framework. The launch event bought together policymakers, researchers, industry stakeholders, and development partners to deliberate on actionable policy pathways for transforming Pakistan's solar boom into a sustainable engine of green industrial growth.
More details on this launch event can be found here.
BRLSI COP30 Panel
11 December 2025
On December 11 2025, Dr Yixian Sun and project manager Ciara O'Brien appeared on a panel "COP30 demystified: is the world any further forward?" at the Bath Royal Literary Scientific Institute.
The event functioned to demystify the political process of COP meetings for the public, with panellists offering their personal judgements on the Belém conference’s successes and failures. Our team members discussed the role of COP30 as a sign of multilateral cooperation remaining alive despite Trump 2.0, the role of critical minerals and fossil fuels, and what a just and clean energy transition really means.
Events at COP30
November 2025
Project PI Dr Yixian Sun led the University of Bath delegation at COP30. Over the two week event, SGAIN co-organized or joined several events and meetings with our network in Belem.
Dr Sun spoke about China-Brazil cooperation on green trade and sustainable infrastructure, as well as China’s role in supporting clean energy transition in the Global South. Dr Sun’s COP30 activities included:
- 15 November: Can Brazil deliver traceable commodities?
- 17 November 9:30-10:45: Sino-Brazilian experiences in forests and infrastructure
- 19 November 16:15-17:15: Sunrise on Distributed Renewables and Sunset on Coal Plants: Learnings for Global South
As part of this important conference, we also launched our first policy report with the Sustainable Development Policy Institute on solar localization in Pakistan during COP30. The report was featured during the side-events at the Regional Climate Foundations Pavilion.
During COP30, we also published a new article, Global climate governance remains resilient under Trump 2.0, co-authored by Dr Sun and Research Associate Yitong Ye, which emphasises that even in moments when the US steps back, collective climate continues to move forward - driven by a wider set of actors, institutions, and emerging economies.
For more about COP30, the video below was produced by the University of Bath, exploring reactions and reflections by Dr Sun:
Workshop at the University of Manchester
3 November 2025
On 3 November, PI Dr Yixian Sun and Postodoctoral Research Associate Yitong Ye visited the Environmental Politics Group at the University of Manchester for a workshop.
Here, they presented a paper based on our CGEL Database to the group for feedback and discussion.
Events in Bangladesh
October 2025
In the last two weeks of October 2025, SGAIN advanced our work in Bangladesh.
On 18 October, we organised a high-level stakeholder workshop on sustainability governance of China's energy investment in Bangladesh, with the support of the University of Dhaka and the Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies. We were pleased to bring together all key stakeholders in Bangladesh's energy sector to deliberate how Bangladesh-China cooperation can support clean energy transition in the country.
In the following days, our PI Dr Yixian Sun, postdoctoral research assistant Dr Yitong Ye, and our local team lead Dr Muhammad Badrul Hasan participated in bilateral meetings with various stakeholders to discuss the opportunities and challenges of Bangladesh's energy transition. We had fruitful conversations on China's influence on clean energy transition with the Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA); Ministry of Power, Energy & Mineral Resources; Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Council; Sustainable and Renewable Energy Development Authority; Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) and the Chinese Enterprise Association in Bangladesh.
We look forward to continuing our engagement with these stakeholders and strengthen partnerships for supporting Bangladesh's energy transition.
Dr Mulyo visits Bath
September 2025
We were pleased to welcome Dr Sumedi Andono Mulyo, Director for National Priority Infrastructure Project Planning and Development at Indonesia’s Ministry of National Development and Planning (BAPPENAS) and member of our advisory board, to Bath, in celebration of his joining the University of Bath Insitute of Policy Research as a visiting policy fellow in September 2025.
SGAIN looks forward to working closely with Dr Mulyo to compare existing international and national standards on sustainable infrastructure and develop recommendations for suitable standards for Indonesia. As part of our collaboration, we will organise a stakeholder workshop in 2026 in Jakarta.
Dr Sun visit to Islamabad
September 2025
We are excited to share that in September, Project PI Dr Yixian Sun visited Islamabad to advance dialogue on greening the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.
On September 18th, he attended and spoke at the High-level Conference on Green Industrialization under CPEC 2.0 on China's enabling role in supporting Pakistan's green transition. We are grateful to the Sustainable Development Policy Institute for hosting this.
Dr Sun also attended important bilateral meetings with key government departments, think tanks, and Chinese companies and financial institutions. These dialogues helped to open new avenues for our project's research and policy engagement. A special thank you to our team members in Pakistan for their hospitality!
Sustainable Infrastructure Workshop with CHINCA
10 September 2025
On September 10th, our SGAIN team hosted a delegation of the China International Contractors Association (CHINCA) and WWF-China to the University of Bath for an invitation-only workshop. Workshop participants include senior officers from CHINCA, Energy China, JSTI GROUP, British Standards Institute, European Climate Foundation.
Through short presentations and open discussion, participants shared their insights on sustainable infrastructure and identified opportunities and challenges for Chinese infrastructure contractors to improve enviornmental, social and governance performance in their overseas activities.
We were honored to have this opportunity to exchange views and look forward to future collaboration with CHINCA, its member companies and other stakeholders to make Chinese companies' overseas activities more sustainable!
Fieldwork in Karawang and Cirata, Indonesia
July 2025
In late July 2025, team member Yuen Gu conducted field research with the UGM team in Indonesia to study the social and environmental impacts of large-scale renewable energy projects contracted to Chinese companies. The fieldwork focused on two flagship sites:
Karawang 100 MW Solar Park, located in a major industrial estate and built by PowerChina Hubei.
Cirata 145 MW Floating Solar Plant, Southeast Asia’s largest floating solar facility, constructed by PowerChina Huadong.
Over the course of two weeks, Yuen and our SGAIN UGM team engaged with local villagers, fishers, community leaders, journalists, and project stakeholders. The research explored themes of employment, community participation, environmental impacts, compensation mechanisms, and local perceptions of Chinese EPCs.
We are excited to build on these insights as part of SGAIN’s broader research agenda on China’s overseas energy investments, and we look forward to sharing further analysis and recommendations in the coming months.
Read more about the reflections on our fieldwork
TC/ESG Conference, Johannesburg
15-23 August 2025
Between 15-23 August, SGAIN PI Dr Yixian Sun had a productive visit in South Africa.
In Johannesburg, Yixian attended the Transformations Community/Earth System Governance (TC/ESG) Conference, where he presented our China’s Global Environmental Leadership (CGEL) database as well as a book chapter on the future of the Sustainable Development Goals. He also joined a workshop organised by E3G and the South African Institute of International Affairs to discuss the role of China in South Africa’s energy and economic transition.
We were pleased to have this opportunity to engage with many colleagues in Africa and explore new collaborations.
At the TC/ESG conference, the Earth System Governance project also announced the next year’s annual conference, to be hosted by the University of Bath with Dr Yixian Sun as the conference chair. Our project team will support the organisation of this important conference, and we look forward to welcoming our collaborators from across the globe.
At the end of July, the ‘Essential Concepts for Implementing the Sustainable Development Goals’ was published, co-edited by SGAIN’s PI Dr Yixian Sun, alongside lead academics Frank Biermann, Thomas Hickmann, Yi hyun Kang, and Carole-Anne Sénit.
SGAIN team member Yuen Gu also contributed to an entry on climate finance with Yixian.
This book aims to provide an accessible overview of the essential terms and concepts related to the global plan to implement the Sustainable Development Goals. With cross-references to related terms in the entries, this book will be a highly valuable resource for students and practitioners engaged with the SDGs and sustainable development more broadly.
The open-access book is accessible at https://lnkd.in/gZUMYuHn.
SGAIN International Meeting
26-27 June 2025
Across two days at the end of June 2025, SGAIN team members met at Bath University to discuss their work over the last year, and plan future collaboration. Members from Bath, Indonesia, Bangladesh, China, and Pakistan presented their ongoing and planned research, before brainstorming sessions on how to enhance cross-country learning.
On the 27th, the Bath Social and Development Research Group led a facilitated session, introducing Qualitiative Impact Protocol, as well as Casual Mapping, opening up conversations on how to apply new methods to SGAIN research across the globe.
It was great to gather all of our team members together in person, and we look forward to sharing more research soon!
Green Soft Power Workshop
23 June 2025
On June 23rd 2025, SGAIN organised a day-long workshop to discuss the manuscript of an upcoming book on China's green soft power, coedited by our PI Dr Yixian Sun and collaborators Jesse Rodenbiker, Juliet Lu, and Tyler Harlan. Participants from across the globe, including China, Canada, the US, Brazil, UAE, Germany, Australia, the Netherlands and the UK commented on studies on the rise of China's green soft power in different sectors and world regions.
The workshop gathered useful feedback for the book manuscript, and we look forward to the publication of the final book.
Mapping Global China Interview
June 2025
Earlier this month, Mapping Global China shared an important interview with SGAIN PI Dr Yixian Sun, and Dr Yifei Li, Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies at NYU Shanghai.
This interview provided key climate insights, with topics including China's pivot from large-scale to smaller sustainable projects, the rise of green soft power, and how China's coercive environmentalism impacts citizen behaviour. The full interview is available online: here
ECPR Joint Sessions of Workshops
20-23 May 2025
On 20–23 May 2025, SGAIN team member Dr Yitong Ye, participated in the ECPR Joint Sessions of Workshops in Prague. At the workshop “Text-as-Data Analysis in Political Science: Unlocking Political Insights with New Research Tools”, she shared our work titled “Seeing China from Different Perspectives: Analyzing Media Reporting on the Sustainability Impacts of Chinese Overseas Investments”
This study explores how competing narratives—local, Western, and Chinese—frame the sustainability impacts of Chinese global investments, particularly in Southeast Asia. Using advanced NLP methods, we developed a transformer-based classification model (XLM-RoBERTa) fine-tuned on manually labelled media reports, and also conducted time-series analysis of media stance over 2010–2024. For the next step, we will work with our colleagues at Causal Map to apply causal mapping techniques to further uncover deeper narrative dynamics and potential causal chains. She also had a fruitful exchange with fellow participants and received insightful feedback.
In the future, our SGAIN team looks forward to developing further collaboration with scholars across fields!
Dr Yixian Sun's trip to China
21-27 April 2025
On 21-27 April, our PI Dr Yixian Sun had a trip in China to share our work at multiple events and engage with various partners in the country. During this trip, Yixian gave talks on his book project on China’s green soft power and introduced our China’s Global Environmental Leadership Database at Fudan University, New York University Shanghai, and Nanjing University. He had fruitful exchanges with Chinese scholars and students at these universities and have received many constructive feedback.
Yixian also joined the event "Financing Sustainable Infrastructure: International Standards and Chinese Practices" organised by FAST-Infra Label, in partnership with JPMorganChase, Green Finance Forum of 60 (GF60), and New Energy Nexus during the Shanghai Climate Week. At a roundtable discussion, he shared our work on governance for sustainable infrastructure and discussed opportunities and challenges for Chinese actors to develop and implement sustainability standards.
It was a productive trip to introduce our work in China. In the future, our SGAIN team looks forward to more opportunities to engage with Chinese researchers and policy practitioners.
The 3rd Annual Conference of the Political Economy of Aid and Development Society (PEADS)
23-24 April
This April, team member Yuen Gu participated in the 3rd Annual Conference of the Political Economy of Aid and Development Society (PEADS) held at the Glasgow University Union. She presented her paper, China's Financing for South-South Climate Cooperation: Balancing Global Climate Governance and National Interests, in the "Climate and Humanitarian Assistance" session, examining China's allocation preference in China's South-South climate cooperation.
During the conference, Yuen also served as a discussant for papers in other sessions. She expressed her appreciation for the constructive feedback received from fellow participants .
Thanks for the organisers for providing a valuable platform for academic exchange.
UNFSS Academic Advisory Council Meeting
31 March - 1 April
We are pleased to share that last week, Principal Investigator Yixian Sun participated in the UNFSS Academy Advisory Council meeting in Bonn, joining a global network of experts to advance the knowledge on Voluntary Sustainability Standards (VSS) and chart a path forward for policy and research. This year’s meeting, hosted by the German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS), focused on the changing landscape of sustainability governance and the future of VSS.
As a key part of these discussions, Yixian kicked off the meeting by delivering a presentation on ‘Transnational sustainability governance amid geopolitical turbulence’. During the two-day meeting, he had fruitful exchanges with VSS researchers and practitioners, connecting our project’s work with the UNFSS community. We look forward to new collaborations!
International Studies Association (ISA) 2025
2-5 March 2025
We are pleased to share that earlier this month, SGAIN was represented at the 66th Annual Convention of the International Studies Association (ISA) in Chicago by several team members.
Principal Investigator Yixian Sun participated in several roundtable discussions to share insights on the construction and use of databases in global environmental governance and politics research, climate leadership in Chinese cities and also ways to enhance diversity and inclusion at ISA. Yixian Sun and Yitong Ye presented their paper 'Governing sustainable infrastructure through a public-private initiative', which investigates how the FAST-Infra Label emerged through coordinated interactions among diverse public and private actors. Dr Hina Aslam delivered a presentation on her work about the growing complexity and challenges arising from diverse frameworks for embedded emissions accounting in the Iron steel sector, and Dr Randy W Nandyatama presented his paper on the dynamics of civil society organisations within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) experiencing increased autocratisation practices.
We also celebrated the presentation of the 2025 Distinguished Scholar Award from the Environmental Studies Section to SGAIN advisory board member Prof Ben Cashore. This award was a well-earned recognition of his decades of groundbreaking scholarship to environmental policy and governance research, including the creation of the term "non-state market driven" (NMSD) global governance and researching climate change as a “super wicked problem”. Congratulations Ben!
All SGAIN researchers enjoyed the conference and got useful feedback on their work. Our team also had a small gathering in Chicago. We look forward to sharing more work at the next year’s ISA!
Researching Global China Conference
25-25 February 2025
In late February, the REDEFINE project hosted the ‘Researching Global China Conference – Innovation and Challenges’, bringing together key Global China scholar to discuss methodological research in the field.
We are pleased to share that several SGAIN researchers attended the conference, representing the project and presenting their ongoing work in building datasets to study Global China. Yitong Ye and Ciara O’Brien shared our first draft of the China Global Environmental Leadership Database, including some of our preliminary results, and Yuen Gu presented her research on China’s South-South Climate Cooperation Database.
We are grateful to the organisers at REDEFINE for this opportunity.
Read more about the conference from our team member Yuen: here
Dr Hapsari Visits Bath
27 January 2025
This week, Assistant Professor at the Department of International Relations at Universitas Gadjah Mada, Dr Maharani Hapsari, visited the University of Bath. Dr Hapsari joined them for their fortnightly meeting for project updates, then gave a talk as part of the ESG Seminar series on the rise of environmental justice movements in Indonesia. This talk covered how the case of palm oil justice movements in Indonesia reveals that struggle is not neutral from contestation, arising within the collective political groups seeking to transform the existing power structure towards a more desirable and just alternative order. Instead, such contestation is a product of contending discourse articulated by activities within the movement, which shapes their identity, approach and strategy in promoting justice as part of the collective action.
After the seminar, Dr Hapsari discussed future collaboration and research in Indonesia with SGAIN.
Professor Chong Chen Visits Bath
13 January 2025
In early January 2025, Professor Chong Chen, Associate Professor of International Relations at Tsinghua University visited the Bath team, joining them for their meeting to discuss project development and milestones. Prof Chen presented his own research, including the effects of state leader visits, to the team, prompting fruitful discussion. This visit also facilitated dialogue for the opportunity of future partnership and collaboration with SGAIN.
2024
Indonesia and Singapore Visits
8-15 December 2024
On 8-15 December 2024, the PI of the SGAIN project, Dr Yixian Sun, travelled to Indonesia and Singapore to meet various stakeholders and prepare SGAIN’s work in Southeast Asia.
During this trip, Yixian visited Indonesia’s Ministry of National Development and Planning (BAPPENAS) and had a meeting with Dr Sumedi Andono Mulyo, Director of Planning and Development of National Priority Infrastructure Projects, to prepare collaboration on benchmarking of sustainable infrastructure standards and nature-based infrastructure in Indonesia. He then participated in an international workshop on the post-2030 Sustainable Development Agenda at Monash University Indonesia. Yixian also visited our Indonesian team at Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) in Yogyarkata to plan SGAINs’ research in the country. During his time in Yogyakarta, Yixian gave a seminar to students and staff of UGM’s Department of International Relations on the Green Belt and Road Initiative and Indonesia’s energy transition. To end his trip, Yixian had a workshop in Singapore with colleagues at the Institute of Environment and Sustainability of the National University of Singapore to discuss various collaborative projects especially on EV and renewable energy policies in Southeast Asia.
It was a very fruitful trip to catch up with our project partners in the region and meet new friends. All these discussions will lay a strong foundation for our impactful work to be carried out in 2025 and beyond. We look forward to sharing more updates in coming months!
ClimBio Frontiers Database Workshop
Utrecht, 4-5 December 2024
In early December, the ClimBio Frontiers research groups hosted a Database Workshop in Utrecht, bringing together researchers and practioners among other actors to discuss, reflect, and cooperate for future climate-based governance databases. The workshop included introductions, discussions of the role of Transnational Governance Initiatives (TGIs) and data work associated with transnational climate governance and biodiversity, and meaningful dialogues to identify gaps in existing datasets and suggest new ways to integrate climate, biodiversityt, and social justice dimensions.
Team members Yitong Ye and Julian Li attended this workshop. Read more about the experience: here
Over the last two weeks, the UN Climate Change Conference COP29 has taken place in Baku, bringing together world leaders, businesses, civil societies and academics to advance solutions for tackling climate change.
We are pleased to share that several members of the SGAIN project are attending the conference, including principal investigator Yixian Sun.
As the Co-Chair of the UN-supported campaign Race to Zero's Working Group on Fair Share, Equity, and Justice, Dr Sun organised a meeting with key stakeholders and experts to discuss best practices and challenges to embed fair share, equity, and justice into net zero transitions of non-state actors. Further, he facilitated a meeting with Chinese stakeholders and the High-Level Champions team, and moderated a side-event on the role of youth action in the Sustainable Development Goals.
Other members of our project at COP29 are Dr. Khalid Waleed, a negotiator for Pakistan on mitigation issues and Ubaid ur Rehman Zia, representing Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI). Our distinguished advisory board members Thomas Hale, Erik Solheim and Kate Logan are also attending.
SGAIN at UN Climate Change Conference
Baku, 11-22 November 2024
Global China Workshop with REDEFINE & SGAIN
Bath, 5-6 November 2024
Over the last three decades, China has become one of the most influential players in international development through large-scale overseas infrastructure investments not only in the Global South but also Global North. How can we understand China's growing influence across the globe? What are new ways to study China’s overseas engagement in different contexts? And how can researchers inform better policies to align Chinese investments with host countries’ development needs? To explore these important questions, the SGAIN project will organise this workshop with the REDEFINE project. The two teams will meet together to share insights from their research, directions for methodological innovations and also opportunities and challenges to pursue policy impact.
Read more about this workshop: here
Co-Host Plenary Session - Reimagining Transitions, Earth System Governance Forum 2024
As part of ESG's 2024 Forum on 'Re-imagining Earth System Governance in an Era of Polycrisis', this roundtable provided a forum for the exchange of ideas around the importance of re-imagining transitions. Focusing on the challenges and opportunities of the transition to sustainable futures, forms of knowledge that can inform and shape transitions thinking, and barriers to rethinking transitions, this session aimed to create a space where more marginalised ideas and concerns are discussed, inviting participants from different disciplinary and socio-cultural contexts.
Dr Yixian Sun spoke at this event, alongside other academics including Dr Sophia Hatzisavvidou from the University of Bath.
You can watch here the recording of the event!
Affiliation with the Earth System Governance Project
SGAIN is pleased to announce our affiliation with the Earth System Governance Project (ESG), the world's largest research network on sustainability governance. Stay tuned for updates on our shared initiatives.
Find out more about our affiliation: here
Asia Energy Transition Summit, 28-29 September 2024
The first 'Asia Energy Transition Summit', organised by the Pakistan Renewable Energy Coalition in collaboration with member organisations (Sustainable Development Policy Institute, Policy Research Institute for Equitable Development, Lahore University of Management Sciences and Renewables First) will take place in Lahore.
The summit aimed to spotlight the urgent need for regional collaboration, to effectively address energy financing, transition away from fossil fuels, and boost energy efficiency for a sustainable future.
Alongside other academics, Dr Yixian Sun took part in a panel discussion on 'China's role in accelerating energy transition finance'.
Find out more about the event: here
IfTI Global Symposium, 4-5 September 2024
The IfTI Global Symposium, hosted at the University of St Gallen, Switzerland (4-5 September 2024) aimed to inform policymakers , financiers, exporters and researchers, deepening knowledge and strengthening cooperation between key stakeholders to help address pressing issues in the future of global trade.
Alongside other academics, Dr Yixian Sun spoke at the Symposium's Academic Session.
Find out more about the event: here
The international research conference GLOBALGOALS2024—The Future of the SDGs, held 29-30 August 2024 in Utrecht, the Netherlands, offered a global platform to share and discuss ideas for the future of Sustainable Development Goals and global sustainablity governance, ahead of the UN Summit of the Future in September.
Dr Yixian Sun, gave a keynote talk on Science-Policy Interaction for Sustainable Development. Team member Faisal Shariff attended the summer school organised by the conference and presented his first PhD paper on energy justice and the attainment of SDG 7 in Pakistan.
Find out more about the event: here
Read here reflections on the event by our team member Faisal Sharrif.
Future of Sustainable Development Goals Conference, 29-30 August 2024
sgain@bath.ac.uk
University of Bath, Claverton Down, BA2 7AY
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