On October 13, 2024, the "Mingde Environmental Academic Forum" sponsored by the School of Ecology and Environment of Renmin University of China was successfully held in a combination of online and offline methods. This forum invited Professor HE Guojun, the director of the Jockey Club Institute for Enterprise Sustainability of the University of Hong Kong, the co-editor-in-chief of the renowned journal Journal of Environmental Economics and Management (JEEM) in the field of environmental economics, to give an academic report titled "An Economist's View on Climate Change and Climate Policies". Professor PANG Jun, the dean of the School of Ecology and Environment, delivered a speech, expressing sincere gratitude to Professor He Guojun on behalf of the school for giving an academic report to the faculty and students, and expressing earnest expectations for the participating teachers and students would benefit academically from the process of communication and learning. The forum was then chaired by Associate Professor CHANG Dunhu.

First of all, taking the most perceptible temperature change as the entry point, Professor He Guojun led the participants to think about how to determine if global warming is occurring and how to substantiate its anthropogenic causes, which triggered a heated discussion among the teachers and students. Professor He Guojun especially emphasized energy consumption, a major source of carbon emissions closely related to human life and social development, and pointed out that the consumption of fossil energy essentially reflects the improvement of human living standards. At present, although the per capita energy consumption in many developed countries has peaked, energy access remains a challenge in many underdeveloped regions. Therefore, climate change is fundamentally a matter of economic development, and the development trend of global climate change depends on developing countries currently undergoing rapid development.

Next, Professor He Guojun summarized the key challenges in addressing climate change issues: First, fossil energy reserves are abundant and cheap. Due to the abundance and low cost of fossil energy, it is widely used in various fields of production and life. However, the use of fossil energy has brought severe challenges to public health. On the one hand, carbon emissions have led to global warming and an increase in extreme weather events. These changes have raised mortality rates, especially among vulnerable groups. On the other hand, the emission of air pollutants harms air quality and threatens public health. Second, the impacts of climate change are heterogeneous among countries. Global climate change challenges social development and raises questions of fairness - some tropical developing countries, despite their small historical carbon footprint, bear the most severe impacts of climate change; in addition, when confronted with similar extreme weather or natural disasters, developing countries bear far higher losses than developed countries with stronger adaptation and response capabilities. Third, there are two approaches to addressing climate change: adaptation and mitigation. Adaptation to climate change itself may mean higher energy consumption, which may lead to more serious climate change issues, undermining the energy-saving goals of climate mitigation, highlighting the importance of policymakers in weighing the pros and cons.

Finally, Professor HE Guojun outlined the main measures to address climate change from the macro and micro levels. From a macro perspective, drawing from his research experience, Professor HE Guojun highlighted the contributions of renewable energy development and technological innovations in fossil fuels. Focusing on the carbon market and carbon tax policies, Professor HE Guojun prompted participants to consider, from an economic perspective, the scenarios where these tools are most effective and what kind of carbon pricing mechanisms yield better outcomes. In addition, Professor HE Guojun also introduced two types of disruptive technologies and geoengineering. One is solar radiation management measures represented by stratospheric aerosol injection and marine cloud brightening, and the other is carbon removal technologies including tree planting, blue carbon, ocean fertilization, and artificial upwelling. From a micro perspective, Professor HE Guojun reviewed the cover article "Reducing single-use cutlery with green nudges: Evidence from China’s food-delivery industry" published by the research team in the journal Science. The study found that the green nudge (the "Ele.me" platform changed the default order setting to "no cutlery" and rewarded consumers with "green points") significantly increased the share of takeaway orders without cutlery. At the same time, Professor HE Guojun pointed out that environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG), which has gained significant attention in recent years, plays an increasingly important role in environmental governance and addressing climate change, and public participation serves as a low-cost tool to enhance regulatory efforts by local environmental departments and curb excessive emissions by enterprises.

Over 300 teachers, students, and researchers from more than 30 universities and research institutions such as Renmin University of China, the University of Hong Kong, Peking University, Beijing Institute of Technology, the University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Wuhan University, Xiamen University, Nankai University, Sun Yat-sen University, Northwest A&F University, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Shanghai International Studies University, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, China University of Geosciences, Liaoning University, East China University of Political Science and Law, South China Agricultural University, Xi'an University of Technology, Yibin Municipal Bureau of Ecology and Environment, Yale University, and Chiba University participated in this forum.

In the discussion session, Assistant Professor LIU Shilei referenced the research team's finding that China's carbon market currently serves primarily to redistribute income within industries rather than effectively reducing carbon emissions. He raised the question of whether the future carbon market policies should focus on emission reduction or the expansion of market participants. In response, professor HE Guojun pointed out that China's carbon market remains in its infancy, and policy formulation needs to consider multiple factors. First, it is necessary to establish a solid foundation for market construction by including as many major emission-intensive industries as possible. Second, the "dual-carbon" goal has also prompted the Chinese carbon market to set a total control target. Finally, a pressing issue is that enterprises face additional policy regulations and constraints outside the carbon market, which may affect the market's incentive effect on emission reduction.

Assistant Professor ZHAO Hao, referencing Professor HE Guojun's research article published in Science,, raised the question of how to measure whether the use of disposable chopsticks increases or decreases carbon emissions, considering that replacing plastic and other chemical products with bamboo is generally regarded as an energy-saving and carbon-reducing practice. Professor HE Guojun agreed with his view and pointed out that the forestry policies of many countries are currently grappling with the issue of excessive forest protection. This has led to an accumulation of aging trees in forests, which no longer effectively sequester carbon, making them more prone to fires and increasing carbon emissions. Therefore, in the future, a reasonable rotation and felling plan needs to be developed based on the carbon sequestration capacity of trees.

In addition, many teachers and students engaged in in-depth discussions with Professor HE Guojun on topics such as the empirical design of public participation in reducing enterprise pollutant emissions, the signaling role of climate risk on investor behavior, and pathways to achieving sustainable development. The discussions were highly engaging, and the teachers and students responded with great enthusiasm.

In the comment session, Professor PANG Jun highly praised Professor HE Guojun 's insightful academic report, pointing out that the report thoroughly outlined the research team's achievements and insights on the causes, impacts, challenges, and strategies for addressing climate change, and provided an in-depth economic analysis of climate change and policy design, with valuable insight and profound conclusions. At the same time, Dean Pang also encouraged the students to follow the example of Professor HE Guojun by thinking deeply about how to combine theory with practice in research, and explore academic issues with depth and value. Finally, Dean Pang suggested that the students read a wide range of classical literature and learn from scholars' methods and processes for identifying and solving key problems.

The Mingde Environmental Academic Forum is also supported by the Institute of Ecological Civilization of Renmin University of China.