Just Transitions for Coal Communities: Lessons from China and the US

Transitioning away from coal is vital to our future, but what happens in the communities that have relied on the fuel? Who benefits from these transitions? What is needed for a just transition in these communities? What kinds of challenges do these changes represent?

Join us for a conversation about how policy, local communities, and energy developers are confronting these questions in China and the US, featuring Dr. Weila Gong and Nick Benjamin ‘05.5.

Dr. Gong is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School. Her scholarship explores comparative climate and environmental policy and politics. Her research has been driven by understanding the political dynamics of global climate leadership across different levels of government, and she has focused specifically on China, notably its low-carbon energy transitions, low-carbon cities, and greening the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). At the Belfer Center, she examines China’s just transition and the shift away from coal and the U.S.-China cooperation on climate change. Her work has appeared in journals such as China Quarterly and Environmental Politics. Her forthcoming book “Climate Leadership in Chinese Cities” examines why some Chinese cities are doing better than others in initiating and implementing low-carbon policy experiments.

Mr. Benjamin is a Senior Director, Development at Clearway Energy Group, where he focuses on developing renewable energy projects, largely in rural communities in West Virginia. He works with wide-ranging stakeholders who have often been reliant on coal.

Sponsored by Environmental Affairs, Climate Action Program, Environmental Studies, and Political Science