It always seems impossible until it’s done!

After graduating from MPhil at Environmental Change Institute (ECI), University of Oxford, I really wanted to publish my dissertation on accelerating carbon neutrality in China, with the aim of reaching a wider audience and potentially influencing policy decisions.

Yet, it was a daunting task, especially as I started working full-time in corporate sustainability immediately after graduation.

I struggled a lot keeping up with work and sparing time to condense the 30k research into 7-8k for journal publication.

Thanks to the encouragement from my thesis supervisors Prof Myles Allen and Dr Matthew Ives for spending time with me after graduation to support me through the content refinement, and navigating the journal selection processes.

I am very grateful to my Masters classmate Jay Doorga for always engaging me with exciting research projects, and even extending support to me for this publication with his talents in producing impressive figures, and valuable research insights. Your confidence in my work also boosted my self-esteem and inspired my submission to the Journal of Cleaner Production, a prestigious journal I have always aspired to publish on. Thanks must also be given to Prof Yuan Xu for guiding me in the research journey since undergrad, and connecting me with expert interviewees in Beijing.

Thank you to all 32 interviewees in Beijing and Hong Kong for making this research possible by sparing your precious time to complete not just one, but two sets of surveys with me! Also wish to thank the research support provided by Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment – University of Oxford on complex systems dynamics, and inspirations from EEIST Project led by University of Exeter.

For those interested, you can read the full article here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959652624011296

Please share your thoughts with me on the research! p.s. I was touched when Marlene Merchert reached out on LinkedIn recently, asking if I could share my MPhil work with her as she also wishes to apply the Sensitive Intervention Points framework in her MPhil!  It was a moment when I truly felt the impact of research transcending borders and leaving silent yet meaningful traces.