Foppiani at Chatham House Seminar

On September 23-24, Dr. Oreste Foppiani, IR Department Head and Associate Professor of International History and Politics, participated in the annual meeting of the Academic and Corporate Institutional Members of the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House) and in the research seminar on “China’s Emissions: On the Path to Sustainable Development?”

Webster Geneva Campus’s IR Department has been an Academic Institutional Member of Chatham House since 2013. IR faculty and students often participate in the major seminars and conferences organized by the prestigious British think tank. Precisely, Chatham House carries out independent and rigorous analysis of critical global, regional and country-specific challenges and opportunities. It consistently ranks highly in the University of Pennsylvania’s annual Global Go To Think Tank Index, where its peers have assessed it as the Number 1 think tank outside the United States of America for seven consecutive years and Number 2 worldwide for the past four years. The institute’s award-winning reports, papers, books, and other research outputs, are a vital resource for leaders and policy-makers in government, the private sector and civil society. International Affairs, Britain’s leading journal of international relations, was founded by and is edited at the Institute. The Institute’s magazine, The World Today, provides authoritative analysis and up-to-date commentary on current topics. The Chatham House Library has one of the longest-standing specialist collections of material on international affairs in the United Kingdom, which are digitally archived and searchable.

The September 24 research seminar saw also the participation of Jean-Sébastien Jacques, CEO of Copper and Coal, Rio Tinto, Felix Preston, Senior Research Fellow, Energy, Environment and Resources, Chatham House, Zhang Xiliang, Deputy Director, Tsinghua-Rio Tinto Research Center for Resources, Energy and Sustainable Development, Tsinghua University, and Fiona Harvey, Environment Correspondent, The Guardian. China accounts for a third of global greenhouse gas emissions, and its ability to reach “peak emissions” before 2030 will play a significant part in determining whether the world can get on track to meet the international goal of limiting global warming to no more than 2 degrees centigrade. Shortly before the UN met to adopt the post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals, the speakers of this research seminar considered the interactions between the PRC’s economy, energy production and its emissions, and whether the country could meet these challenges. In addition, they discussed how the PRC’s efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions fit into the bigger picture of sustainable development.