Yuetong Guo is a final-year PhD candidate in the Department of Political Economy at King’s College London, co-supervised by Dr Tomas Maltby and Dr Francesca Vantaggiato. She expects to submit her thesis in September 2026, with her viva scheduled for November 2026.

Yuetong researches the political economy of climate and environmental policy, with a particular focus on the European Union and its cooperation with international organisations. Her doctoral work examines the European Commission’s role in shaping carbon-pricing policies for aviation and shipping through the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS). It explores how European policies interact with global arrangements, including the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA) under the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), and shipping regulation negotiated through the International Maritime Organization (IMO). She is interested in how policy decisions are negotiated, how competing economic and environmental priorities are balanced, and how climate commitments are translated into practical regulation.

Her research draws on interviews with policymakers and the analysis of European and international policy developments. During her Brussels-based fieldwork, Yuetong was a visiting researcher at ISPOLE, UCLouvain. She was a member of King’s COP30 delegation, contributing public-facing analysis of climate policy, carbon markets and sectoral decarbonisation, and is also a member of King’s COP31 delegation in 2026.

Yuetong’s wider interests include energy policy, international cooperation, sustainable transport, environmental economics and ESG investment. Alongside her academic work, she has gained experience across economics, finance and public policy through internships at the Export–Import Bank of China, SDIC Securities and Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu LLC.

Yuetong holds a BSc in Economics and Finance from the University of Liverpool and Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (2021), and an MSc in Public Policy from the Department of Political Science at University College London (2022).

Teaching

4SSPP109 Quantitative Methods

4SSPP111 Statistics for Political Science I

6SSPP386 Statistics for Political Science II

Research interests

• Climate and environmental policy
• Climate governance and leadership
• International climate negotiations and diplomacy
• European Commission and EU inter-institutional relations
• Carbon markets and emissions trading
• Maritime and aviation decarbonisation

Doctoral research

Bridging EU Carbon Markets and International Governance: European Commission Climate Leadership in Aviation and Maritime Transport.

Supervisors 

Dr Tomas Maltby and Dr Francesca Vantaggiato