Dr Yuli Shan PhD

Profile picture of Dr Yuli Shan

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences
Associate Professor in Sustainable Transitions

Dr Yuli Shan is an expert in climate change mitigation and sustainable transitions. His interdisciplinary research aims to reveal how human activities affect global and regional climate change. He also seeks alternative low-carbon approaches towards the achievement of climate targets and a net-zero emission society.

Dr Yuli Shan is a Global Highly Cited Researcher since 2020 and a contributing author of the IPCC 6th assessment report. His international reputation for environmental resources accounting and climate change mitigation in developing countries has resulted in 20+ academic awards, 100+ publications in high-impact journals, high-profile media coverage, international conference and committee invites.

Qualifications

  • PhD in Climate Change and Development, University of East Anglia (2018)
  • Master of Social Development and Public Policy, Fudan University (2014)
  • BSc in Statistics and Actuarial Science, Tianjin University of Finance and Economics (2012)

Biography

Dr Yuli Shan is an Associate Professor in Sustainable Transitions at the University of Birmingham. He is a global highly cited researcher in 2020. Before joining the University of Birmingham, he worked at the University of Groningen as a Faculty Research Fellow. He got a doctoral degree from the University of East Anglia (2018) and a master’s degree from Fudan University (2014).

Yuli is a contributing author of the IPCC 6th Assessment Report and an executive committee member of the National Association of Input-Output and Big Data of China. Yuli has rich experience with publishing, reviewing, and editing journal papers. He is an editorial board member of Scientific Data, Advances in Applied Energy, Journal of Cleaner Production, Advances in Climate Change Research, and Frontiers in Sustainable Cities.

Yuli has won a dozen academic prizes including the Green Talents awarded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). The jury especially valued the scientific expertise regarding his research on the adaption and investigation of sustainable policies in cities. Yuli has been interviewed by internationally renowned media such as Reuters, Financial Times, and Xinhua net to discuss city-level sustainable development.
 
He is the winner of the 2023 Birmingham Founder's Awards for Early Career.

Teaching

Teaching at the University of Birmingham

  • Climate Change in the Earth System - UG year 3
  • Global Environmental Issues - UG year 1
  • Field course (Tokyo)

CEADs summer school

Previous teaching at the University of Groningen

  • Conceptualizing and Modeling Human-Environmental Systems - PGR
  • Data Analysis and Statistical Methods – PGR

Postgraduate supervision

Climate Change Mitigation and Economics; Sustainable Transitions; Accounting of Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Research

Yuli’s research focuses on Accounting for Carbon EmissionsClimate Change Economics, and Sustainable Development, with a special focus on developing countries and cities. He has published over 100 papers in high-impact journals, such as Nature Climate ChangeNature SustainabilityNature GeoscienceNature Food, and Science Advances. His paper has been cited over 11,000 times (h-index 47), and 25 of them are ESI highly cited papers and 18 are hot papers. He has co-built an open emission dataset (CEADs) to provide the most up-to-date regional emission and energy data for emerging countries and subnational regions. CEADs has been downloaded by 100+ thousand times per year and reused in over 1,000 journal papers.

Academic Posts

  • Associate Professor (2022-), University of Birmingham
  • Faculty Research Fellow (2019-2022), University of Groningen
  • Senior Research Associate (2018-2019), University of East Anglia

Other activities

  • Contributing author of the IPCC 6th assessment report, working group III
  • Editorial Board Member for Scientific Data and Advances in Applied Energy
  • Associate Editor for Journal of Cleaner Production; Advances in Climate Change Research; Green and Low-Carbon Economy; Frontiers in Sustainable Cities
  • Executive committee member of the National Association of Input-Output and Big Data of China
  • Member of several academic communities, including International Society for Energy Transition Studies; International Input-Output Association; Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research; International Society for Industrial Ecology
  • Affiliated Researcher at the University of Groningen (IRES - Integrated Research on Energy, Environment and Society)

Publications

Highlight publications

Shan, Y, Guan, D, Zheng, H, Ou, J, Li, Y, Meng, J, Mi, Z, Liu, Z & Zhang, Q 2018, 'China CO2 emission accounts 1997–2015', Scientific Data. https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2017.201

Guan, D, Meng, J, Reiner, DM, Zhang, N, Shan, Y, Mi, Z, Shao, S, Liu, Z, Zhang, Q & Davis, SJ 2018, 'Structural decline in China’s CO2 emissions through transitions in industry and energy systems', Nature Geoscience. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-018-0161-1

Shan, Y, Guan, D, Hubacek, K, Zheng, B, Davis, SJ, Jia, L, Liu, J, Liu, Z, Fromer, N, Mi, Z, Meng, J, Deng, X, Li, Y, Lin, J, Schroeder, H, Weisz, H & Schellnhuber, HJ 2018, 'City-level climate change mitigation in China', Science Advances. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aaq0390

Shan, Y, Fang, S, Cai, B, Zhou, Y, Li, D, Feng, K & Hubacek, K 2021, 'Chinese cities exhibit varying degrees of decoupling of economic growth and CO2 emissions between 2005 and 2015', One Earth, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 124-134. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2020.12.004

Shan, Y, Ou, J, Wang, D, Zeng, Z, Zhang, S, Guan, D & Hubacek, K 2021, 'Impacts of COVID-19 and fiscal stimuli on global emissions and the Paris Agreement', Nature Climate Change, vol. 11, no. 3, pp. 200–206. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-020-00977-5

Recent publications

Article

Mastrandrea, R, Burg, RT, Shan, Y, Hubacek, K & Ruzzenenti, F 2024, 'Assessments of the environmental performance of global companies need to account for company size', Communications Earth & Environment, vol. 5, no. 1, 5. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-024-01200-5

Xu, J, Guan, Y, Oldfield, J, Guan, D & Shan, Y 2024, 'China carbon emission accounts 2020-2021', Applied Energy, vol. 360, 122837. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2024.122837

Zhang, H, Di Maria, C, Ghezelayagh, B & Shan, Y 2024, 'Climate policy in emerging economies: Evidence from China's Low-Carbon City Pilot', Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, vol. 124, 102943. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeem.2024.102943

Wu, S, Wei, T, Qu, Y, Xue, R, Wang, H & Shan, Y 2024, 'How does global value chain embeddedness affect environmental pollution? Evidence from Chinese enterprises', Journal of Cleaner Production, vol. 434, 140232. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2023.140232

Wang, J, Shan, Y, Cui, C, Zhao, C, Meng, J & Wang, S 2024, 'Investigating the fast energy-related carbon emissions growth in African countries and its drivers', Applied Energy, vol. 357, 122494. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2023.122494

Wang, J, Ji, C-J, Liu, Y, Shan, Y, Hubacek, K, Wei, YM & Wang, K 2024, 'Re-investigating the shared responsibility for trade-embodied carbon emissions', Ecological Economics, vol. 220, 108162. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2024.108162

Yang, Y, Zhou, Y, Shan, Y & Hubacek, K 2024, 'The shift of embodied energy flows among the Global South and Global North in the post-globalisation era', Energy Economics, vol. 131, 107408. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eneco.2024.107408

Andersen, EV, Shan, Y, Bruckner, B, Černý, M, Hidiroglu, K & Hubacek, K 2024, 'The vulnerability of shifting towards a greener world: The impact of the EU's green transition on material demand', Sustainable Horizons, vol. 10, 100087. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.horiz.2023.100087

Shen, Y, Shi, X, Zhao, Z, Xu, J, Sun, Y, Liao, Z, Li, Y & Shan, Y 2023, 'A dataset of low-carbon energy transition index for Chinese cities 2003–2019', Scientific Data, vol. 10, no. 1, 906. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-023-02815-7

Tian, J, Cheng, Q, Xue, R, Han, Y & Shan, Y 2023, 'A dataset on corporate sustainability disclosure', Scientific Data, vol. 10, no. 1, 182. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-023-02093-3

Ye, Q, Krol, MS, Shan, Y, Schyns, JF, Berger, M & Hubacek, K 2023, 'Allocating capital-associated CO2 emissions along the full lifespan of capital investments helps diffuse emission responsibility', Nature Communications, vol. 14, no. 1, 2727 . https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-38358-z

Lu, H, Xu, Z-D, Cheng, YF, Peng, H, Xi, D, Jiang, X, Ma, X, Dai, J & Shan, Y 2023, 'An inventory of greenhouse gas emissions due to natural gas pipeline incidents in the United States and Canada from 1980s to 2021', Scientific Data, vol. 10, no. 1, 282. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-023-02177-0

Conference contribution

Zhu, D, Liu, M, Li, R, Shan, Y, Zhang, H, Bi, J & Hubacek, K 2024, Increasing climate change changes household medical expenditures. in EGU General Assembly 2024., EGU24-16105, EGU General Assembly 2024, Vienna, Austria, 14/04/24. https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu24-16105

Liang, J, Wu, K, Liu, M, Yang, J, Shan, Y & Bi, J 2024, Mapping the water-economic cascading risks within a multilayer network of supply chains. in EGU General Assembly 2024., EGU24-8398, EGU General Assembly 2024, Vienna, Austria, 14/04/24. https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu24-8398

Li, Y, He, P, Shan, Y, Li, Y, Hang, Y, Shao, S, Ruzzenenti, F & Hubacek, K 2024, Reducing climate change impacts and inequality of the global food system through diet shifts. in EGU General Assembly 2024., EGU24-14983, EGU General Assembly 2024, Vienna, Austria, 14/04/24. https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu24-14983

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