Professor Lo is currently Professor at York St John University, the United Kingdom. He received his PhD from the Australian National University. After completing his doctoral study and a research position in Vienna, Austria, he was appointed as Lecturer in Environmental Economics at Griffith University, Australia and later Assistant Professor at the University of Hong Kong. Before moving to the UK in 2024, he spent five years in New Zealand, where he was Programme Director of the Master of Climate Change Science and Policy at Victoria University of Wellington and convened a highly subscribed postgraduate module about carbon pricing mechanisms.
From 2019 to 2023, He was Associate Editor of Geographical Research (Wiley), the journal of the Institute of Australian Geographers. Currently, Professor Lo is a Panel Member for the Research Foundation Flanders (Belgium) under the Science and Technology of Constructions and the Built Environment panel (W&T9). He is Editor of Asia Pacific Viewpoint (Wiley) and Adjunct Professor of the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
At York St John University, he plays a leadership role as Group Leader of the Global Sustainability Research Programme, and the Unit of Assessment (UoA) Lead of Business Studies and Management (UoA17) for the University’s submissions to upcoming Research Excellence Framework (REF) in the UK.
| Doctor of Philosophy (Australian National University) |
| Master of Philosophy (The University of Hong Kong) |
| Master of Science in Environmental Management (The University of Hong Kong) |
| Bachelor of Business Administration (The Chinese University of Hong Kong) |
Member of grant assessment panel, Research Foundation Flanders (Belgium), Panel W&T9 (Science and Technology of Constructions and the Built Environment) (2022 – present)
Chair, Departmental Review and Benchmarking Panel, the Department of Science and Environmental Studies, the Education University of Hong Kong (2025)
Editor, Asia Pacific Viewpoint (published by Wiley) (2025 – present)
Associate Editor, Geographical Research (published by Wiley), Journal of the Institute of Australian Geographers (2019 – 2023)
Member, Executive Committee, Hong Kong Geographical Association (2018 – 2019)
Member, Executive Committee, Australia and New Zealand Society for Ecological Economics (2013 – 2014)
Professor Alex Lo is an interdisciplinary researcher, a strong interest in the study of climate policy and finance, environmental governance, and human behaviour. He is the lead author of ‘China’s Climate Policy: Transition, Governance, and Market’ (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2025), and among the World’s top 2% scholars (according to the Stanford/Elsevier List).
Professor Lo has received funding for collaborative research designed to create community or policy impact. Between 2017 and 2019, he led a project about carbon emissions trading fully funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China. In Australia, he was awarded two external grants by the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia for building international research collaborations with the Chinese Academy of the Social Sciences. In 2014, the Regional Studies Association (UK) funded his further research built upon these two Australian projects.
He also participated in several other successful bids as a Co-Investigator, including a collaborative project about business adaptation to climate change funded by the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility (Australia). In Hong Kong, he was a theme leader of a large multidisciplinary collaborative project about natural hazards education funded by the University Grants Committee. In 2022, he led a capacity development project funded by the Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change Research. In this project, Professor Lo and his team built partnerships with local governments in Indonesia and working with environmental activists in Myanmar, both of which led to impact-relevant initiatives aligned with UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Recently, Professor Lo and his colleagues have received funding from the British Academy to build capacity in Sub-Saharan Africa for climate change adaptation research and science communication. Moreover, he is an active Co-Investigator of two large-scale, multi-country community-based research projects led by Hong Kong Baptist University and funded by Hong Kong’s Research Grant Council.
Books
Lo, A.Y. and Xiang, C. (2025) China’s Climate Policy: Transition, Governance, and Market. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, ISBN 9781035341252, 218 pages.
Lo, A.Y. (2016) Carbon Trading in China: Environmental Discourse and Politics. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, ISBN 9781137528995, 172 pages.
Journal Articles
Setiadi, R., Baumeister, J., Lo, A.Y., Perita, L. (2026) Living on top of water: Public attitude toward floating houses in North Jakarta, Indonesia. Environmental Development 57, 101354.
Xiang, C. and Lo, A. Y. (2025) Authoritarian environmentalism 2.0: An incremental transition of environmental governance in China, Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space, 43(4), p. 765–782.
Lo, A.Y., Cheung, L.T.O. and Liu, S., (2024) Sense of place and micro-business vulnerability to extreme weather in China, Geoforum, 156, 104135
Lo, A.Y., Liu, S., and Cheung, L. T.O. (2024) Political-economic transformation and the reproduction of climate change vulnerability of a high-income city, International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 101, 104234
Lo, A. Y. and Cong, R. (2022) Emission reduction targets and outcomes of the Clean Development Mechanism (2005 – 2020), PLOS Climate. 1 (8), e0000046.
Lo, A.Y., Liu, S., Chow, A.S.Y, Pei, Q., Cheung, L. T.O. and Fok, L. (2021) In government we trust? Micro-business adaptation to climate change in four post-colonial and transitional economies of China, Global Environmental Change, 69, 102305.
Lo, A.Y., Liu, S., Chow, A.S.Y, Pei, Q., Cheung, L. T.O. and Fok, L. (2021) Business vulnerability assessment: A firm-level analysis of micro and small businesses in China, Natural Hazards, 108, p. 867–890.
Lo, A.Y., Liu, S., Cheung, L. T.O. and Chan, F.K.S. (2020) Contested Transformations: Sustainable Economic Development and Capacity for Adapting to Climate Change, Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 110, (1), p.223-241
Lo, A.Y., Chen, K., Lee, A.K.-y. and Mai, L.Q. (2020) The neoliberal policy experimentation on carbon emission trading in China, Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space, 38(1), p. 153-173
Lo, A. Y. and Chen, K. (2020). Business participation in the development of a Chinese emission trading scheme, Energy Policy, 140, 111432.
Lo, A.Y., Chow, A.S.Y, Liu, S. and Cheung, L. T.O. (2019) Community business resilience: Adaptation practice of micro- and small enterprises around the Pearl River Estuary, Climatic Change, 157 (3-4), p. 565-585
Lo, A.Y., Liu, S. and Cheung, L. T.O. (2019) Socio-economic conditions and small business vulnerability to climate change impacts in Hong Kong, Climate and Development, 11 (10), p. 930-942
Lo, A. Y. and Chen, K. (2019). Policy selection of knowledge: The changing network of experts in the development of an emission trading scheme. Geoforum, 106, p. 1-12.