Publications

1. Sun, Y. (2022). Certifying China: The Rise and Limits of Transnational Sustainability Governance in Emerging Economies. MIT Press. https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/14192.001.0001

Read & download the open-access e-book here
​Watch the recording of the book launch here 
Listen to my interview with Environment China podcast  

Book reviews by China Quarterly, Earth System Governance Environmental Politics, Global governance : a review of multilateralism and international organizations, Journal of Development Studies, International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, The China Journal, and Transnational Environmental Law.

26. Wang, Y., Liu, C., & Sun, Y. (2024). No more coal abroad! Unpacking the drivers of China’s green shift in overseas energy finance. Energy Research & Social Science, 111, 103456. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2024.103456

25. Fesenfeld, L., Beiser-McGrath, L., Sun, Y., Wicki, M., & Bernauer, T. (2024). Systematic mapping of climate and environmental framing experiments and re-analysis with computational methods points to omitted interaction bias. PLOS Climate, 3(2), e0000297. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000297

24 . Fu, Y., Sun, Y., Liu, J., Cashore, B. W., & Liang, W. (2024). Unraveling Forest Practice Policies in China: Subnational Comparisons through Policy Prescriptiveness Framework. Forests, 15(6), https://doi.org/10.3390/f15060927     

23. Sun, Y., & Page, N. (2024). Climate-biodiversity nexus in transnational climate governance: Variation across net zero initiatives. Carbon Management, 15(1), 2306895. https://doi.org/10.1080/17583004.2024.2306895

22. Hickmann, T., Biermann, F., Sénit, C.-A., Sun, Y., Bexell, M., Bolton, M., Bornemann, B., Censoro, J., Charles, A., Ramiro, R. C., Coy, D., Dahlmann, F., Elder, M., Fritzsche, F., Galvão, T. G., Grainger-Brown, J., Inoue, C., Jönsson, K., Rosas, M. K., … Weiland, S. (2024). Scoping article: Research frontiers on the governance of the Sustainable Development Goals. Global Sustainability, 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1017/sus.2024.4

21. Sun, Y., Lewis, J. I., & Urpelainen, J. (2023). Environmental governance of China’s Belt and Road Initiative. Environmental Politics, 32(7), 1109–1116. https://doi.org/10.1080/09644016.2023.2251372

20. Biermann, F., Sun, Y., Banik, D., Beisheim, M., Bloomfield, M. J., Charles, A., Chasek, P., Hickmann, T., Pradhan, P., & Sénit, C.-A. (2023). Four governance reforms to strengthen the SDGs. Science, 381(6663), 1159–1160. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adj5434

19. Fesenfeld, L. P., Maier, M., Brazzola, N., Stolz, N., Sun, Y., & Kachi, A. (2023). How information, social norms, and experience with novel meat substitutes can create positive political feedback and demand-side policy change. Food Policy, 117, 102445. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodpol.2023.102445

18. Sun, Y., & Yu, B. (2023). Greening China’s Belt and Road Initiative: From Norm Localization to Norm Subsidiarity? Global Environmental Politics, 23(1), 91–116. https://doi.org/10.1162/glep_a_00685

17. Sun, Y., & Yu, B. (2023). Mask Diplomacy? Understanding China’s Goals in Delivering Medical Aid in the First Wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Journal of Current Chinese Affairs, 18681026221139500. https://doi.org/10.1177/18681026221139499

16. Chelminski, K., Andonova, L. B., & Sun, Y. (2022). Emergence and Structuring of the Clean Energy Regime Complex. Global Governance: A Review of Multilateralism and International Organizations, 28(4), 587–616. https://doi.org/10.1163/19426720-02804005

15. Iweala, S., & Sun, Y. (2022). The many aspects of voluntary sustainability governance: Unpacking consumers’ support for tea standards in China and the UK. Cleaner and Responsible Consumption, 100080. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clrc.2022.100080   

14. Biermann, F., Hickmann, T., Sénit, C.-A., Beisheim, M., Bernstein, S., Chasek, P., Grob, L., Kim, R. E., Kotzé, L. J., Nilsson, M., Ordóñez Llanos, A., Okereke, C., Pradhan, P., Raven, R., Sun, Y., Vijge, M. J., van Vuuren, D., & Wicke, B. (2022). Scientific evidence on the political impact of the Sustainable Development Goals. Nature Sustainability, 1–6. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-022-00909-5

13. van der Ven, H., Sun, Y., & Cashore, B. (2021). Sustainable commodity governance and the global south. Ecological Economics, 186, 107062. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2021.107062

12. Fesenfeld, L. P., Sun, Y., Wicki, M., & Bernauer, T. (2021). The role and limits of strategic framing for promoting sustainable consumption and policy. Global Environmental Change, 68, 102266. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2021.102266

11. van der Ven, H., & Sun, Y. (2021). Varieties of Crises: Comparing the Politics of COVID-19 and Climate Change. Global Environmental Politics, 22(1), 13-22. https://doi.org/10.1162/glep_a_00590

10. Fesenfeld, L. P., Wicki, M., Sun, Y., & Bernauer, T. (2020). Policy packaging can make food system transformation feasible. Nature Food, 1(3), 173–182. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-020-0047-4

9. Gonenc, D., Piselli, D., & Sun, Y. (2020). The global economic system and access and allocation in earth system governance. International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, 20(2), 223–238. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10784-020-09472-w

8. Schleifer, P., & Sun Y. (2020). Reviewing the impact of sustainability certification on food security in developing countries. Global Food Security, 24, 100337. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gfs.2019.100337

7. Sun, Y., & van der Ven, H. (2020). Swimming in their own direction: Explaining domestic variation in sustainability governance for aquaculture in Asia. Ecological Economics, 167, 106445. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2019.106445

6. Andonova, L. B., & Sun, Y. (2019). Private governance in developing countries: drivers of voluntary carbon offset programs? Global Environmental Politics 19(1), 99-122. https://doi.org/10.1162/glep_a_00496

5. Chan, S., Boran, I., van Asselt, H., … Sun, Y., Toussaint, P., & Wambugu, G. (2019). Promises and risks of non-state action in climate and sustainability governance. WIREs Climate Change 10:e572. https://doi.org/10.1002/wcc.572

4. Schleifer, P., & Sun, Y. (2018). Emerging markets and private governance: The political economy of sustainable palm oil in China and India. Review of International Political Economy, 25(2), 190–214. https://doi.org/10.1080/09692290.2017.1418759

3. Sun, Y. (2017). Transnational public-private partnerships as learning facilitators: Global governance of mercury. Global Environmental Politics, 17(2), 21–44. https://doi.org/10.1162/GLEP_a_00399

2. Sun, Y. (2016). The changing role of China in global environmental governance. Rising Powers Quarterly, 1(1), 43–53. https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/document?repid=rep1&type=pdf&doi=dc2296a4cebe787bd44df4f079447f8631ac78be  

1. Fedorenko, I., & Sun, Y. (2016). Microblogging-based civic participation on environment in china: A case study of the PM 2.5 campaign. VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, 27(5), 2077–2105. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11266-015-9591-1

3. Sun, Y., Hickmann, T., & Sénit, C.-A. (eds). Is Goal-setting an Effective Strategy for Global Sustainability Goverance? Insights from the Sustainable Development Goals. Earth System Governance.

2. Sun, Y., Lewis, J., & Urpelainen, J. (Eds). Environmental Governance of China’s Belt and Road Initiative. Environmental Politics

1. van der Ven, H., Sun, Y., & Cashore, B. (Eds.). Sustainable Commodity Governance and the Global South. Ecological Economics. ​​

6. Fesenfeld, L. P., & Sun, Y. (2023). Enabling Positive Tipping Points in Public Support for Food System Transformation: The Case of Meat Consumption. In D. Resnick & J. Swinnen (Eds.), The Political Economy of Food System Transformation (1st ed., pp. 256–287). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198882121.003.0011

5. Sun, Y., & Liu, C. (2023). Ratcheting-up through competition: Global environmental governance in the era of rising geopolitical tensions between China and the West. In P. Dauvergne & L. Shipton (Eds.), Global Environmental Politics in a Turbulent Era (pp. 197–209). Edward Elgar Publishing. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781802207149.00024

4. VanDeveer, S. D., Park, H., Sun, Y., & Betsill, M. M. (2023). Extractive industries and mineral resources: Turbulence all around. In P. Dauvergne & L. Shipton (Eds.), Global Environmental Politics in a Turbulent Era (pp. 75–89). Edward Elgar Publishing. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781802207149.00013

3. Llanos, A. O., Raven, R., Bexell, M., Botchwey, B., Bornemann, B., Censoro, J., Christen, M., Díaz, L., Hickmann, T., Jönsson, K., Scholz, I., Scobie, M., Sun, Y., Thompson, J., Thwaites, J., & Yunita, A. (2022). Implementation at Multiple Levels. In C.-A. Sénit, F. Biermann, & T. Hickmann (Eds.), The Political Impact of the Sustainable Development Goals: Transforming Governance Through Global Goals? (pp. 59–91). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009082945.004

2. Sun Y. (2021). In the Shadow of the State: The Rise and Limits of Transnational Private Certification in China’s Seafood Sector. In D. Guttman, Y. Jing, & O. R. Young (Hrsg.), Non-state Actors in China and Global Environmental Governance (S. 249–277). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-6594-0_9

1. Andonova, L. B., & Sun, Y. (2017). Private Governance. Oxford Bibliographies Political Science. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/obo/9780199756223-0216

Sun, Y. (2023). Why renewed China-US cooperation bodes well for climate action. The Conversation. 

Sun, Y. (2021). China will no longer build overseas coal power plants – what energy projects will it invest in instead? The Conversation. 

Schleifer, P., & Sun, Y. (2020). Sustainability standards’ impact on food security: What’s the evidence? Evidensia.