Ahlers on China's Authoritarian Environmentalism at UNIGE, 8 December, 17h15

[Lucas Mueller]

Dear Colleagues, 

We are delighted to welcome Anna Ahlers on 8 December for the next event of the Geneva Environmental Lectures, which are organized as part of the SNSF Ambizione project "Avalanches."

Anna Ahlers (Max-Planck Institute for the History of Science)

Demystifying China’s Authoritarian Environmentalism - and Its Local and Global Nuances

8 December 2025, 17h15-18h45

Uni Mail, M1170

Abstract

Over the past two decades, and especially since the Trump administration dismissed climate change as a hoax, China’s authoritarian approach to enforcing environmental and climate policies has attracted the attention of scholars and policymakers. Although the propagandistic features, inefficiencies, and limitations of this governance model, commonly termed "authoritarian environmentalism," are well-documented in the literature, the narrative remains persistent and resilient. At the same time, China’s environmental policies have undeniably yielded measurable successes, including economic benefits from the country’s green transition. This lecture offers a critical analysis of the conceptual and empirical merits of the "environmental authoritarianism" framework while examining its local and global nuances through two case studies: China’s "war on air pollution" and the "greening" of China’s foreign affairs.

 

Bio

Anna Lisa Ahlers leads the Lise Meitner Research Group “China in the Global System of Science” at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin, where she currently focuses on China’s science system and its global integration through sociological and area studies perspectives. She is also Professor II at the University of Oslo, teaching courses on China and contemporary geopolitics. Trained in sinology and political science, she has held research positions at the Universities of Tübingen and Bonn, the Mercator Institute for China Studies, Academia Sinica (Taiwan), the University of Chicago, and the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin (IAS). Her work has been published in leading journals including The China Quarterly, Modern China, and Higher Education. She serves on the editorial board of The Environments of East Asia series (Cornell University Press), the international advisory board of Routledge Studies on Local China, and the executive committee of the European Journal of East Asian Studies.

We look forward to seeing many of you in about three weeks.

Kind regards,

Lucas Müller 

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Lucas Mueller, PhD
Collaborateur Scientifique II

SNSF-Ambizione-Fellow

Université de Genève

Département de Géographie et environnement
Faculté des Sciences de la Société

Boulevard Carl-Vogt 66 (C 309)
CH-1211 Genève 4
+41 22 37 93337

https://avalanche.hypotheses.org