Register Now: Adam Tooze at CCG – June 30, 2:30 PM
The Global Green Transition and China’s Role: A Historical Perspective
On June 30 at 2:30 PM, Adam Tooze, Shelby Cullom Davis chair of History and Director of the European Institute, Columbia University, will speak at CCG's Beijing office on the theme “The Global Green Transition and China’s Role: A Historical Perspective.”
The event, lasting one and a half hours, will include a speech by Adam Tooze, a discussion with CCG President Henry Huiyao Wang, and a live Q&A session with the audience. Interested individuals can register via Eventbrite.
The global green transition is a central response to climate change and a pillar of sustainable development. As the global energy landscape undergoes profound transformation, the roles of individual nations have become increasingly pivotal. In recent years, the pace of green transition has accelerated dramatically—nowhere more so than in China. As a leading investor, innovator, and driver of clean energy, China has emerged as a central force in reshaping the global energy structure.
Recent data shows that in just the first five months of 2025, China’s solar power capacity surpassed 1,000 gigawatts—nearly half of the world’s total—underscoring its leadership in global decarbonisation. While China has made notable advances in clean energy deployment and technology, it still faces significant challenges in reducing reliance on coal and other traditional energy sources. Viewed historically, the green transition is not merely a technological shift but a far-reaching political, economic, and social transformation.
Adam Tooze is one of the most influential economic historians and public intellectuals in the West today. A professor of history and Director of the European Institute at Columbia University, he previously taught at Cambridge and Yale, covering topics such as modern German history, global economic history, and international security. With a background in economics from the University of Cambridge and a PhD from the London School of Economics, Tooze bridges economics and history with unmatched insight.
His acclaimed books include The Wages of Destruction, which redefined the Nazi wartime economy and won the Wolfson History Prize; The Deluge, a seminal work on the post–World War I global order; Crashed, widely regarded as the definitive account of the 2008 financial crisis and winner of the Lionel Gelber Prize; and Shutdown, a comprehensive chronicle of the COVID-19 pandemic’s economic impact. His works are both academically rigorous and highly readable, cited frequently by The Financial Times, The Economist, and The New York Times.
Beyond academia, Tooze is a prolific commentator and thought leader. He writes regularly for The Financial Times, The New York Review of Books, and The London Review of Books, and is a frequent keynote speaker at the World Economic Forum, leading think tanks, and closed-door policy gatherings. His newsletter Chartbook and podcast Ones and Tooze bring incisive economic and geopolitical analysis to a wide audience.
Described by The Atlantic and New York Magazine as “one of the most influential historians of our time,” Tooze is recognised as a guiding voice in progressive thought and a key figure shaping Western policy debates.