Back to Yale, after a visit to China

Just back today at Yale, after about 10 days away in China. I started off at an International Resource Panel meeting in Shenzhen, and ended off spending a few days with my friend Maarten Hajer in Hong Kong just walking the city and visiting a ‘new town’ of 2 million people. Also spend a day at workshop on China’s Belt and Road Initiative. This is a special project of the Chinese President, who recently got voted President for life. He said he needed more time to realize his plans. One of which is the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). This is a $4-8 trillion investment that aims to integrate China into Europe via a new road infrastructure linking China through Europe, into London. Plus a maritime infrastructure that links in South East Asia, India and East Africa into a new constellation of high-end ports, cities and maritime capacity. Maarten and I visited Mong Kok, the most densely populated suburb in the USA. The Resource Panel went well – I was the reviewer of a great report on the Governance of Mineral Resource Extraction in light of the SDGs, including the proposal to market a Sustainable Development License to Operate rather than just a Social Licence to Operate.