Hongpeng Lei

Energy Programme Leader, World Resources Institute

Hongpeng Lei has over 12 years’ experiences in energy, climate and urban issues. He leads the Energy Programme of the World Resources Institute (WRI) in China, and in this capacity is responsible for the strategic planning, design and implementation of the Energy Programme in China. Under his leadership, the programme works with WRI global energy teams to promote renewable energy, energy efficiency and energy access.

Before joining the WRI, he led the climate and energy team of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in China. As leader of the Low-Carbon City initiative, he worked with the team to explore low-carbon development models in pilot cities and to disseminate successful experiences to other cities, thus playing an active role in driving China’s low-carbon urban development between 2007 and 2012. He is the author of Low-Carbon Cities: Why and How, which provides a systematic methodology and criteria for the development of low-carbon cities in China.

Hongpeng Lei also works with stakeholders to speed up renewable energy development and the low-carbon transition in China. Together with partners, he developed China’s annual solar PV and wind power reports for 2008 to 2012 and participated in developing documents such as China’s Energy and Carbon Emission Scenarios 2050, the Low-Carbon City Index, and The True Cost of Coal.

Prior to joining WWF, he worked for four years on improving the energy efficiency of buildings at China’s Ministry of Construction and has extensive experience in implementing building energy efficiency codes and developing green buildings. He managed several international projects funded by GEF, UNDP and the World Bank.