Time and place for the trial lecture
23rd of June 10:15am-11:00am in Gamle festsal.
The title for the trial lecture will be: In light of the Chinese leadership's dedication to "dialectical reasoning" and identification of "main contradictions", in what ways and to what extent does China's recent priority of "ecological civilization" constitute a challenge to China's institutional normative order?
The trial lecture and the disputation can also be followed by zoom.
Adjudication committee
- Professor Ole Kristian Fauchald, University of Oslo (Head of Committee)
- Assistant professor Rogier Creemers, Leiden University (1. opponent)
- Dr Ling Li, University of Vienna (2. opponent)
Chair of defence
Vice dean Ivar Alvik
Supervisors
- Associate Professor Anna Maria Charlotta Lundberg, Norwegian Centre for Human Rights
- Professor Benedicte Bull, Centre for Global Sustainability
Summary
China's Green Promise: Does It Travel?
China is building roads, railways, and dams across Africa and beyond. But is it also exporting environmental protection? That is the question at the heart of this research.
As China becomes one of the world's most powerful builders and lenders, understanding whether its environmental commitments are real or merely rhetorical, has consequences for the planet.
A bold domestic vision
Over the past decade, China has developed a bold domestic vision it calls "Ecological Civilization".Essentially, this is China’s own version of sustainable development. The Chinese government has pledged to bring this vision to its international projects too. This is particularly evident through the Belt and Road Initiative, a massive global infrastructure programme spanning dozens of countries. The question is whether this promise hold up in practice?
A gap between narrative and reality
This research followed the paper trail from Communist Party ideology, through Chinese national law, all the way to construction projects on the ground in Kenya and Zimbabwe. What it found is a significant gap between the narrative and the reality. China promotes ecological values in international agreements and policy documents, but when you look at actual investment projects in African countries, those values are not consistently applied.
Overridden by ideology
One key finding is that Chinese law abroad is never fully independent from Communist Party ideology. This matters because it means environmental protections can be overridden whenever they conflict with the Party's broader political and economic goals.
The conclusion is that the legal tools are in place, but the political will to enforce them consistently does not yet follow.