Author: langb

Assessing the Status of Existing and Tentative Marine World Heritage Areas Reveals Opportunities to Better Achieve World Heritage Convention Goals

The 1972 World Heritage Convention (WHC) and 1994 Global Strategy aim to preserve the outstanding universal value of internationally important cultural and natural sites within a “representative, balanced and credible” network of highly-protected areas. Increasing human pressures and shortfalls in representation have been documented across the World Heritage network, particularly in terrestrial and cultural sites, […]

GDP Center Round-Up: Fall 2021 Global China Research Colloquium

By Bridgette Lang Over the past four months, the Fall 2021 Global China Initiative Research Colloquium has brought scholars from around the world together for a webinar series on topics related to Chinese investment, overseas financing, energy and development. In September 2021, Ying Qian kicked off the series by presenting a new working paper on […]

The Evolving Landscape of Big Data Analytics and ESG Materiality Mapping

Raging hurricanes, devastating floods, sea-level rise, heatwaves, and other extreme weather conditions are now attributed to climate change. In a new article published in the Journal of Impact and ESG Investing, Sucharita Gopal, Joshua Pitts, Kalyani Inampudi, Yingqiang Xu and Graham Cook propose that climate change poses a significant investment risk in terms of economic losses […]

The Effect of Foreign Investment on Asian Coal Power Plants

Generating 38.5 percent of the global electricity supply, coal-fired power plants are the largest contributors to carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in the power sector. The development of these plants represents the tradeoffs and tensions between expanding and improving electricity supply, while reducing CO2 emissions, as embodied in the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Goal […]

Financing Forest Protection Without Fueling the Debt Crisis

By Blake Alexander Simmons and Rebecca Ray Last month, leaders from over 130 countries endorsed the Glasgow Leaders’ Declaration on Forests and Land Use at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26), pledging to halt and reverse deforestation by 2030. This comes on the heels of another agreement, the Kunming Declaration from the Convention on Biological […]

Identifying Management Opportunities to Combat Climate, Land and Marine Threats Across Less Climate Exposed Coral Reefs

Conserving coral reefs is critical for maintaining marine biodiversity, protecting coastlines and supporting livelihoods in many coastal communities. Climate change threatens coral reefs globally, but researchers have identified a portfolio of bioclimatic units (BCUs), or coral reefs, that are relatively less exposed to climate impacts and connected to other reef systems. These reefs provide a […]

Competing or Complementary Labels? Estimating Spillovers in Chinese Green Building Certification

Many markets have multiple voluntary certification programs that sellers use to signal product or organizational quality. While previous scholarship has emphasized the potential for competition between labels, what happens when labels are viewed as complementary? In a new journal article published in the Strategic Management Journal, Xia Li and Timothy Simcoe argue there can be positive spillovers […]