Today, China is facing serve environmental problems which the costs may account for 10% of its GDP. Given the nation’s size, China’s problems with issues like pollution may impact the whole world. Have you ever thought that journalism can play an important role in solving environmental issues?   

On 17 May 2017, Institute for the Environment joint hand with Civic Exchange to organize a seminar on “Environmental Journalism: How can it help China clean up?” with Ms Isabel Hilton, the founding editor of the influential Chinadialogue.net (中外對話), as the keynote speaker. 80 students, experts from academia, consultants, media and people from business sector and NGOs joined the seminar to start an insightful discussion. Ms Hilton shared about environmental journalism's role in informing the public – particularly about the difficult balance between rapid economic growth and environmental damage. She addressed how media, citizens and the law could contribute to build solutions for China’s environmental challenges.

Chinadialogue.net was founded in 2006 in London as the only bilingual, independent organization dedicated to promote a common understanding of China’s urgent environmental challenges, such as climate change, species loss, air pollution, water scarcity and environment damage.

Ms Isabel Hilton, OBE, the CEO and Editor of Chinadialogue.net, has an MA (hons) in Chinese from Edinburgh University, and studied at the Beijing Foreign Language and Culture University, and Fudan University in Shanghai. She and her work have appeared in The Sunday Times, The Independent, The Guardian, The New Yorker and The BBC. She has interviewed prominent figures like Nobel Laureate Al Gore for Chinadialogue.net.