27th Annual Symposium

Green Innovation in China and the US: Creating Climate Solutions

The Environment Across Boundaries (ENVX) Symposium is an annual series of events in the fall semester at Lewis & Clark College that invites speakers and the community to engage with our community. The Fall 2024 symposium will focus on China’s role in and response to modern environmental change. Global cooperation appears essential to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to global climate change. Yet differences in governance, culture, and geopolitics introduce challenges to internationally cooperative solutions.

In recent years China has massively increased production of solar panels, wind turbines, batteries, electric vehicles and high-speed trains, driving down global production costs and increasing the potential for global adoption. China’s urban environment has also grown rapidly, possibly holding compelling insights and warnings about city growth and design.

This year’s symposium will feature two keynote speakers, a panel on electric vehicles, a movie screening, and a closing banquet with the intention of investigating the questions: Can China’s progress in the renewable energy sector facilitate the global transition to renewable energy? How does the social and political setting in China enable and obstruct coordinated environmental action? Can we widen our imagination of possible futures from a comparison of approaches and challenges in the U.S. and China?

The student cochairs for the 27th annual ENVX Symposium are Morgaine McGrath ’25 and Kaia Hirsch ’26.