Dr Wei Shen is a political economist who worked for development finance agencies in China for over ten years.
His research interest has been mainly focusing on low carbon development and energy transition in China and its impact on international development. As a political economist, he is working on inter-disciplinary issues around central-local and state-business relations in promoting green industries such as renewable energy, carbon markets, and climate finance in China.
Wei is also interested in the social-economic impacts of low carbon transition, particularly on most vulnerable and disadvantaged groups and challenges in achieving as just transition in China. In addition to domestic challenges, he is also looking at the global impacts of China low carbon development, around the issues of South-South cooperation in the energy and climate related sectors.
He is currently a lead author of the 6th Assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), with specific responsibility for reviewing climate policies and institutions in the global South (Working Group III, Chapter 13).
Wei completed his PhD in the School of International Development at the University of East Anglia, focusing on the political economy of China’s by-then popular CDM and carbon offset projects. The research was fully funded by the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research. His recent research regarding China’s ongoing experiment of Emission Trading Schemes is published in journals such as Climate Policy.
Wei is involved as co-investigator in an ESRC-funded research project: The Rising Powers, Clean Energy and the Low Carbon Transition in Southern Africa, led by Professor Marcus Power from Durham University. Previously, Wei has also worked closely with Chinese stakeholders of the newly established carbon market as an external advisor.
