Accelerating Decarbonisation in Hard to Abate Sectors

Rong Yan is a senior associate of the RMI China Program, working with the Industry Decarbonization Initiative, where RMI works to accelerate decarbonizing China’s heavy industries, including steel, cement, petrochemicals & chemicals, and aluminum. She is the content lead for the team’s aluminum and circular economy work,  and the author of RMI China’s flagship report on cement industry sectoral transition roadmap, one of the earliest in the field, developed in close partnership with leading industry associations and institutes and recognized by many. Her other areas of focus include the transition routes and economic analysis of near-zero steel, as well as supporting heavy industry’s transition to near-zero production using procurement as a tool.

Before joining RMI, Rong worked as a consultant, advising international companies from various industries, including finance, manufacturing and consumer goods on their carbon reduction strategies their implementation. Rong also has experience working at BP, WoodMackenzie, and The Nature Conservancy.

Co-founder and Senior Vice President at E-C DIGITAL、Chief Designer of the JimuLCA TooL, Johnson Gui is a member of the Expert Committee for the Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) Platforms in both the steel and battery industries. He also serves as Deputy Director of the China Industrial Internet Steel Dual-Carbon Innovation Laboratory and is a technical expert for the United Nations Industrial Deep Decarbonization Initiative (IDDI).

Previously, he was an LCA expert at ArcelorMittal in France, a researcher at China Baowu Group, and a core team member at the Institute of Resource and Environmental Research. He has also worked with the World Steel Association and the North American Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC).

With over a decade of experience in carbon data quantification and LCA databases, Johnson Gui has been instrumental in developing numerous industry standards.

Valerie is the director overseeing Climate Action 100+, an investor-led initiative to ensure the world’s largest corporate greenhouse gas emitters take necessary action on climate change. She co-leads the Asia workstream from within Climate Action 100+, and oversees the team’s co-ordination of corporate engagement activities for Asian focus companies. This includes convening sector roundtables to support corporate transition to net zero. Valerie is part of the strategic projects working group and convenes Asia Advisory Group discussions to build investor capacity on stewardship. Outside of CA100+, she is also involved in capacity building for investors in strengthening corporate engagement outcomes through considering various tools and approaches of engagement.
Prior to joining AIGCC, she worked for two sustainability advisory firms and advised clients’ sustainability and risk management strategies. She also conducted environmental and social due diligence for private equity clients. Her career started in public affairs with a Hong Kong-based consultancy. Valerie holds a MSSc in Business and Community from the University of Bath in the United Kingdom.

My Sustainability Goals for 2024:

It would be great to see Hong Kong introduce medium term goals in renewable energy development to meet its net zero goals, and better response with stronger resilience and readiness for physical risks.

Li Li, joined BASF Venture Capital as an senior investment manager in 2018. She is responsible for investment and portfolio management in ASIA region and based from Hong Kong. Li started her career with PwC China and provided transaction services to top investment institutes such as Warburg Pincus, TPG, Ping’an, Sequoia and MNC investors. She then started and managed corporate strategy and M&A department for Voith Group in China. Before joining BVC, Li used to work for SABIC Ventures for their Chinese investments. She graduated from Fudan University with an Economics major. Her domain of interest include digitalization, business model, and sustainability investment opportunities that makes a difference for BASF’s future!

My Sustainability Goals for 2024:

1. Better gabbage separation system (paper is currently not a separate category)
2. More sustainable power supply (how to be more independent?)
3. More sustainable water supply (how to be more independent?)

Li Zi is the Senior Expert in Sustainable Development at Tencent. He also served as a research fellow at Alibaba Group before. Prior to this, he was a guest critic at MIT and a research fellow at National University Of Singapore. Li Zi’s primary focus is on providing scenario analysis and strategic planning in the areas of technological transformation (AIGC), geopolitics, and climate change for digital platforms. As a result of his work, he was awarded “The 10 Years Best Research Fellow (2009-2019) on digitalization” at The New Economy Think Tank Summit 2020.
He holds a doctoral degree from the NUS and a master’s degree from TU Delft. With 15 years of professional experience, he has worked extensively in the field of digitalization in Europe, China, Southeast Asia, and the United States. Li Zi also served as a guest editor for Domus , where he initiated the “Online” series of publications, including topics such as “Smart Nation” and “Online Urbanism”. His book, titled “Online Urbanization: Online Services in China’s Rural Transformation”, has been recognized by SpringerLink as one of the most referenced works related to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Currently, he is working on a book about the new covenant between humans and AI.