Peggy Liu is Chairperson of the Joint US-China Collaboration on Clean Energy (JUCCCE) and one of the leading voices on China‘s sustainability landscape and fostering international collaboration with China. She works in ecolivable cities, clean energy, and sustainable consumerism. Among her many international accolades, Peggy was honored as a Time Magazine Hero of the Environment, a Forbes “Women to Watch in Asia” and World Economic Forum Young Global Leader. Liu is an executive advisor to Marks & Spencer, a member of the FTSE Environmental Markets Committee, and a Thought Leader at Criticaleye. She served as a sustainability advisor to HP in 2013, a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Councils on Sustainable Consumption 2012-13, and an energy adviser to the Clinton Global Initiative in 2008.
China is undergoing the single largest urbanisation drive history has ever seen. Through it, hundreds of millions of people are benefitting from improved living standards but at huge costs including intensive resource consumption, urban-rural cultural clashes and environmental degradation.
As Chairperson of JUCCCE, Peggy Liu shared a unique insider’s perspective into how China is addressing urbanisation through the organization’s training program for mayors across China. She will examine the forces that are driving the inevitable citification of China; the challenges in mitigating rural-urban conflict as a result and the innovation that is arising from the need to build whole cities at a time. In particular, she will highlight some of the personalities and institutions within China that are asking the big questions that will shape the country’s path towards urbanisation. Liu will also examine the struggles local leaders face in applying sustainable solutions that can be implemented in a cost-effective manner in a fast-paced and expansive country like China.
