Yixian Sun

Dr Yixian Sun is a Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in International Development at the University of Bath. He holds a Ph.D. and Master's degree in International Relations / Political Science, from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (IHEID) in Geneva, and was Postdoctoral Fellow at Yale University. He is also an Adjunct Senior Research Fellow of the Institute for Environment and Sustainability (IES) at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy of the National University of Singapore, a Research Fellow of the Earth System Governance (ESG) Project, and co-convenor of the ESG Taskforce on the Sustainable Development Goals.

Dr Yixian Sun's research explains the changing role of China in global environmental governance, including sustainability transitions within China as well as sustainability governance of China's overseas engagement. His work has been published in Science, Nature Sustainability, Nature Food, Global Environmental Change, Environmental Politics, Review of International Political Economy and other high-impact scientific journals. He is also the author of Certifying China: The Rise and Limits of Transnational Sustainability Governance in Emerging Economies published by the MIT Press in 2022. He is currently the Associate Editor of Global Enviornmental Politics and World Development Perspectives.

Besides his academic research, Dr Yixian Sun is a member of the Expert Peer Review Group of the UN-supportec campaign Race to Zero. He has also been a writer for the Earth Negotiations Bulletin since 2015 to attended various meetings of multilateral environmental treaties.