Biography
Ruoxuan Li is a PhD candidate in the Department of International Development at King’s. She is the 2025/26 Miguel Dols Fellow at the LSE Cañada Blanch Centre and a 2024/25 Visiting Fellow at the Sydney Environment Institute, University of Sydney.
She holds an MSc in Environment, Politics, and Development from the Department of Geography at King's and a BSc in Economics from Northwestern Polytechnical University. She also completed the Associateship of King’s College programme in 2024. Her interdisciplinary research lies at the intersection of political economy, economic geography, and environmental sustainability. She investigates how finance impacts market-based climate mechanisms, focusing on the political economy of carbon (markets, offsetting, and capture) and the role of the state.
Ruoxuan has extensive teaching and professional experience. As a Graduate Teaching Assistant at King's and other London universities, she has taught across several departments and supported a range of courses from pre-university to postgraduate level. Professionally, she has interned with consulting firms, NGOs, and think tanks, specialising in desktop research on ESG reporting and disclosure.
Research
Thesis title: 'Financialization of Climate Governance: Carbon Markets, the Shareholding State, and the Politics of Offsetting'
This research provides a critical analysis of carbon market through the lens of financialization, focusing on the state's dual role as both regulator and owner.Key themes include:
- The strategic use of carbon offsetting as a tool for the corporate governance of State-Owned Enterprises
- The political and economic tensions between stated climate mitigation goals and underlying financial accumulation strategies
- The emergence of environmental governance as a new and powerful form of statecraft in state-led economies
- How local governments and companies navigate the competing demands of the central government's climate and economic policies
PhD supervision
- Principal supervisor: Dr Ewa Karwowski
- Secondary supervisor: Dr Nithya Natarajan
Further details
Research
Global Production, Finance and Labour research group
A multidisciplinary research group that explores inclusive and sustainable growth.
Climate, Environment, and Power research group
This group focuses on the critical study of the processes that drive and link social and ecological change in the contemporary world, with special attention to the climate crisis and its multiple social, economic, political, and cultural dimensions.
Critical Global Capitalism Studies Collective
A collective bringing critical global capitalism research, teaching and activism at King's together under one umbrella to provide a forum for collaborations, events, and discussions, and to forge connections with the media, the policy world, and other like-minded groups.
Research
Global Production, Finance and Labour research group
A multidisciplinary research group that explores inclusive and sustainable growth.
Climate, Environment, and Power research group
This group focuses on the critical study of the processes that drive and link social and ecological change in the contemporary world, with special attention to the climate crisis and its multiple social, economic, political, and cultural dimensions.
Critical Global Capitalism Studies Collective
A collective bringing critical global capitalism research, teaching and activism at King's together under one umbrella to provide a forum for collaborations, events, and discussions, and to forge connections with the media, the policy world, and other like-minded groups.