On December 10th, 2021, the 35th lecture of Fudan - LSE lecture series was held online. Oran Young, professor at University of California, Santa Barbara, delivered a lecture entitled The Status of Climate Governance in the Aftermath of COP 26. Nearly 60 professors and students from Fudan University and other universities attended the lecture which was chaired by Adjunct Professor Daniel Guttman of the Institute for Global Public Policy (IGPP) of Fudan University.

Professor Oran Young started with the big picture of the earth’s climate system, arguing that moving towards carbon neutrality by 2050 required fundamental changes in socio-economic systems, such as the global energy system, while the path dependence of socioeconomic and political systems was acting as an obstacle to change. At the same time, he cited data to point out that the sharp increase in the concentration of greenhouse gases over the past century had led to drastic fluctuations in the earth's climate system, which were characterized by various extreme weather events. Unlike the remarkable advances in technologies such as artificial intelligence, there had been no breakthrough in carbon reduction or absorption in climate science, so it’s time to focus more on global action on climate change. Regarding the content and impact of COP 26, Professor Oran Young stated that the Conference and its agreements provide a framework for all parties to take action, under which it ’s more important for the parties to continue negotiations and develop their pledges into legal binding mechanism and timetables. In addition, he noted the focus on both mitigation and adaptation to climate change of COP 26.

In the Q&A session, Professor Oran Young discussed China's role in global climate governance, knowledge transfer and capacity building with the audience.