The first “GEP Top Talk” in this semester was taken place on March 22th in the School of Environment. With the help of Professor Gang Yu, we were honored to invite Mr. Mukul Sanwal to share his specialized knowledge and life experiences with GEP students.

At first, we introduced the Global Environment Program (GEP) to Mr. Mukul Sanwal. As GEP is a multi-disciplinary program with the aim to provide students with the capability to solve complicated environmental problems, especially global ones, Mr. Sanwal decided to about the interdisciplinary nature of environmental issue: it is never merely about science and technology. With an historical angle, he introduced the development of climate change. Climate change was caused by industrialization. However, as the economy is more about consumption than production, now climate change has been closely connected to economy development and urbanization. The life style of human being even plays an important role because food, transportation and building energy consumption all have impacts on climate change. Besides, Mr. Sanwal also explained how international politics affected environmental issues. Then, he briefly introduced his interpretation about China’s ecological civilization. At last, he shared his life experiences and provided some suggestions on our study and career development.

Mr. Mukul Sanwal is an expert in climate change and sustainable development policy. He has worked for the Ministry of Environment and Forests in India, as Senior Policy Adviser to the Executive Director at the United Nations Environment Program in Nairobi, and at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. He also has a teaching career which includes Harvard University, the University of Massachusetts and the University of International Business and the Economy in Beijing. He was part of the group of scientists at the IPCC when it was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. He is now an independent consultant.

GEP students and UN Former Senior Policy Adviser in the Interview