Nearly 100 Experts Urge Early Green Investment as 2030–2035 Emerges as China’s Critical Energy Transition Window

For climate professionals, the Carbon Economics Salon at PHBS was more than another academic conference—it was a strategic rehearsal for the looming APEC negotiations where carbon-related trade measures and green governance are set to collide. With the window for China’s energy transition narrowing to 2030–2035, the event’s focus on market-based tools, unilateral green barriers, and AI integration offers a preview of the policy and technology shifts that will define the Asia-Pacific’s decarbonization pathway over the next decade.

On June 16, 2026, nearly 100 scholars, policymakers, and industry representatives gathered at Peking University HSBC Business School (PHBS) in Shenzhen for a Carbon Economics Salon, co-hosted with the Institute of Carbon Neutrality at Peking University (ICN-PKU). The salon titled "Breaking through Green Barriers: Carbon Economy Governance and the Reshaping of International Trade Rules" directly confronted the escalating climate-trade tension in the Asia-Pacific, positioning the discussions as a strategic precursor to the APEC Forestry Ministerial Meeting in late July and the broader APEC summit in November. The event underscored the urgency of reconciling unilateral climate-related trade measures—often called green barriers—with the need for inclusive, market-based carbon governance systems, a dialogue that is becoming central to the region's economic and environmental future.

“

Opening speakers Piao Shilong, vice president of PKU and dean of ICN-PKU, and Hai Wen, vice chair of the PKU Council, emphasized building an inclusive global carbon governance system that does not penalize developing economies.

The salon’s timing was deliberate. As the Asia-Pacific region grapples with a patchwork of carbon pricing mechanisms, the risk of trade fragmentation grows. Opening speakers Piao Shilong, vice president of PKU and dean of ICN-PKU, and Hai Wen, vice chair of the PKU Council, emphasized building an inclusive global carbon governance system that does not penalize developing economies. Wang Pengfei, dean of PHBS, reinforced the call for stronger carbon pricing and market-based tools, highlighting the inadequacy of current mechanisms to drive the scale of transformation required. This framing set the stage for a keynote by Thomas J. Sargent, the 2011 Nobel laureate in economics and honorary director of the PHBS Sargent Institute of Quantitative Economics and Finance. Sargent’s core argument—that uncertainty about future climate policy should accelerate, not delay, investment in green R&D, emissions reduction, and forest conservation—challenged conventional risk-averse postures. His message directly countered the inertia often seen in both corporate and governmental decision-making, providing an intellectual foundation for preemptive action despite policy ambiguity.