publications | Judy Jingwei Xie, Ph.D.

2025

Climate Policy
Tracing inclusivity at UNFCCC conferences through side events and interest group dynamics

Judy Jingwei Xie, Nora Alessandra Escher, Matilda E. Dunn, and 3 more authors

Nature Climate Change, Mar 2025

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Inclusivity and transparency are the foundations of procedural justice in climate governance. However, concerns persist around the influence of business interest groups at United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conferences of Parties (COPs). COPs have increased in size and complexity, obscuring agendas and organizational relationships. Here we analyse the discourse and networks of actors at COP side events from 2003 to 2023 using machine learning-based topic modelling and social network analysis. We trace how discussions on energy, food and forests have evolved. Focusing on energy topics, we show that fossil fuel lobbyists gain COP access through developed-country business non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and developing-country governments. Their nominators focus on renewable energy and system approaches but are peripheral in the anti-fossil fuel discourse which grew from a collaborative network of environmental NGOs. Despite data availability challenges, systematically tracing the inclusivity of COP processes can uncover power dynamics at the highest levels of climate governance.
@article{xie_tracing_2025, title = {Tracing inclusivity at UNFCCC conferences through side events and interest group dynamics}, url = {https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-025-02254-9}, doi = {10.1038/s41558-025-02254-9}, volume = {15}, issn = {1758-6798}, pages = {270–-278}, language = {en}, journal = {Nature Climate Change}, author = {Xie, Judy Jingwei and Escher, Nora Alessandra and Dunn, Matilda E. and Yu, Yurong and Staffell, Iain and Rogelj, Joeri}, month = mar, year = {2025}, tldr = {Read the Research Briefing on this article <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-025-02255-8">here</a>.} }
Note: Read the Research Briefing on this article here.
Climate Policy
Past Socio-Political Transitions Away from Coal and Gas Show Challenges and Opportunities Ahead

Judy Jingwei Xie, Elina Brutschin, Joeri Rogelj, and 1 more author

Environmental Research Letters, May 2025

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Transitioning away from fossil fuels presents substantial challenges, given the growing mismatch between pledges submitted to international climate negotiations and the mitigation strategies that limit warming to below 1.5 °C or 2 °C presented in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Sixth Assessment Report. The scientific case for phasing out coal-fired electricity is clear, and many countries are progressing towards this. However, despite widespread concerns about risks and trade-offs, natural gas is often considered a bridge fuel, and there is currently no progress towards phasing down its capacity. Previous work on the political feasibility of coal phase-out only considered limited socio-political factors, missing the importance of governance quality and policies supporting the energy transition. There is even more limited understanding of factors associated with gas phase-down, while Europe and North America fall behind trajectories required to limit warming below 1.5 °C. We use multivariate regression and clustering analyses on over four decades of data to investigate the drivers and synergies of coal and gas transitions. This reveals opportunities to overcome fossil fuel lock-in through renewable energy expansion, energy policy reforms, and power market restructuring. Countries with greater reliance on fossil fuel infrastructure and workforce face additional difficulties in phase out. Social factors such as higher belief in climate change are positively linked with more ambitious coal phase-out efforts. However, disentangling these links for gas remains difficult given the limited historical evidence of phase-down progress. We identify four archetypes (Coal Reliance, Gas Reliance, Limited Policy, and Transition Underway) that illustrate different ways countries have transitioned from coal and gas over time. These provide blueprints for potential future transitions in other countries. Recognizing the diverse social, political, and institutional factors that shape transitions can inform the design of politically relevant future scenarios.
@article{xie_ERL_2025, title = {Past Socio-Political Transitions Away from Coal and Gas Show Challenges and Opportunities Ahead}, url = {https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/add0c6/meta}, doi = {10.1088/1748-9326/add0c6}, volume = {20}, number = {6}, language = {en}, journal = {Environmental Research Letters}, author = {Xie, Judy Jingwei and Brutschin, Elina and Rogelj, Joeri and Staffell, Iain}, month = may, year = {2025} }

2024

Climate Policy

Ex-post evaluation of climate policies and identification of barriers and milestones towards climate neutrality

Elina Brutschin, Judy Jingwei Xie, and Leonardo Nascimento

Jul 2024

@techreport{brutschin_ex-post_2024,
  address = {Laxenburg, Austria},
  title = {Ex-post evaluation of climate policies and  identification of barriers and milestones towards climate neutrality},
  url = {https://www.elevate-climate.org/_files/ugd/912d78_6929f365a888437393bd82d1c6586a9c.pdf},
  language = {en},
  institution = {International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis},
  author = {Brutschin, Elina and Xie, Judy Jingwei and Nascimento, Leonardo},
  month = jul,
  year = {2024}
}

Climate Policy

Raising Policy Ambitions to Reduce Coal- and Gas-Fired Power Generation

Judy Jingwei Xie, Elina Brutschin, and Bas Van Ruijven

Jul 2024

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@techreport{xie_raising_2024,
  address = {The Hague, Netherlands},
  title = {Raising {Policy} {Ambitions} to {Reduce} {Coal}- and  {Gas}-{Fired} {Power} {Generation}},
  url = {https://www.elevate-climate.org/_files/ugd/912d78_b8d0ab6eb2054c70bb118dd36e315395.pdf},
  language = {en},
  number = {\#1},
  institution = {PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency},
  author = {Xie, Judy Jingwei and Brutschin, Elina and Van Ruijven, Bas},
  month = jul,
  year = {2024}
}

2023

Climate Policy
Distributional labour challenges and opportunities for decarbonizing the US power system

Judy Jingwei Xie, Melissa Martin, Joeri Rogelj, and 1 more author

Nature Climate Change, Nov 2023

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The transition towards a low-carbon power system presents challenges and opportunities for the workforce with important implications for just transitions. Studies of these distributional labour impacts could benefit from tighter linkages between energy and employment modelling. Here, we couple a power-sector optimization model, an employment impact model and demographic databases to understand state-level job characteristics and the societal implications of low-carbon transitions in the US. Although decarbonization brings consistent job growth, it heightens the need for investment in human capital and supply chain restructuring. Major fossil fuel-producing states need to prepare for fewer mining jobs under the US Long-Term Strategy, so other opportunities should be created or seized. The lowest-skilled workers will experience more uncertain employment outcomes. Expanding renewable energy could improve opportunities for women in fossil fuel-dependent states, but not enough to disrupt the national gender status quo. This work provides a new quantitative perspective to inform proactive just transition policies.
@article{xie_distributional_2023, title = {Distributional labour challenges and opportunities for decarbonizing the {US} power system}, volume = {13}, issn = {1758-678X, 1758-6798}, url = {https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-023-01802-5}, doi = {10.1038/s41558-023-01802-5}, language = {en}, number = {11}, journal = {Nature Climate Change}, author = {Xie, Judy Jingwei and Martin, Melissa and Rogelj, Joeri and Staffell, Iain}, month = nov, year = {2023}, pages = {1203--1212}, tldr = {✨This work was featured on the cover of the <a href="https://www.nature.com/nclimate/volumes/13/issues/11">November 2023 issue</a>.} }
Note: ✨This work was featured on the cover of the November 2023 issue.

2022

Climate Policy
Modeling the Socio-Economic Impacts of Carbon Capture and Storage Deployment: Current Practices and Pathways Forward

Judy Jingwei Xie, Piera Patrizio, and Niall Mac Dowell

In Sustainable Carbon Capture, Nov 2022

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The transition to a net-zero economy implies a wide range of changes affecting certain industrial sectors, communities, and regions. When moving from theory to practice, public policies need to account for the country-specific portfolios of physical capital, human capital, social capital, intangible capital, and natural capital consistent with the low carbon transition goals. Further, any policy measure is unlikely to be implemented unless it also quantifies adverse socio-economic impacts across the economy, which is expected to vary from country to country. The chapter will present a review on how socio-economic impacts are accounted for in climate and energy models, including the main advantages and trade-offs of the different modeling approaches. The chapter will conclude the analysis by suggesting key socio-economic indicators paramount to model energy systems transition in a socially equitable way, focusing on the elements that are particularly relevant to CCS.
@incollection{xie_modeling_2022, edition = {1st Edition}, title = {Modeling the Socio-Economic Impacts of Carbon Capture and Storage Deployment: Current Practices and Pathways Forward}, isbn = {978-1-003-16278-0}, booktitle = {Sustainable Carbon Capture}, publisher = {CRC Press}, author = {Xie, Judy Jingwei and Patrizio, Piera and Dowell, Niall Mac}, year = {2022}, }

2021

Chemical Engineering
Chemical Kinetics of the Autoxidation of Poly(ethylenimine) in CO2 Sorbents

Iman Nezam^†, Jingwei Xie^†, Kristina W. Golub, and 5 more authors

ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering, Jun 2021

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The oxidative degradation rates of a CO2 sorbent composed of a mesoporous alumina impregnated with poly(ethylenimine) (PEI) are measured under systematically varied conditions and a reaction rate law is created. Good agreement is shown between the rate of oxidation obtained via in situ calorimetric heat measurement during oxidative degradation reactions and the loss of CO2 capture performance presented as amine efficiency (mol CO2/mol amine). PEI mass loss and elemental composition are tracked over the course of the reaction and used in conjunction with the oxidation rate measurements to shed insight into the oxidation reaction(s). These data, in combination with measurements of the heat of reaction, suggest a common reaction set across the range of temperatures, oxygen concentrations, and sorbent compositions tested. The data are consistent with the basic autoxidation scheme (BAS), the accepted mechanism of autoxidation of aliphatic polymers. We propose a lumped kinetic model to describe the oxidation reaction set and estimate an activation energy of 105 kJ/mol and an oxygen reaction order of 0.5–0.7 from the data accordingly. These parameters can be incorporated into process cycle models to estimate the material lifetime, a critical uncertainty in the deployment of DAC technologies.
@article{nezam_chemical_2021, title = {Chemical {Kinetics} of the {Autoxidation} of {Poly}(ethylenimine) in {CO2} {Sorbents}}, volume = {9}, url = {https://doi.org/10.1021/acssuschemeng.1c01367}, doi = {10.1021/acssuschemeng.1c01367}, number = {25}, urldate = {2024-12-27}, journal = {ACS Sustainable Chemistry \& Engineering}, author = {Nezam, Iman and Xie, Jingwei and Golub, Kristina W. and Carneiro, Juliana and Olsen, Karl and Ping, Eric W. and Jones, Christopher W. and Sakwa-Novak, Miles A.}, month = jun, year = {2021}, pages = {8477--8486}, }

2019

Chemical Engineering
Inter- and Intramolecular Cooperativity Effects in Alkanolamine-Based Acid-Base Heterogeneous Organocatalysts

Jingwei Xie, Nathan C. Ellebracht, and Christopher W. Jones

ACS Omega, Jan 2019

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Intramolecular cooperativity in heterogeneous organocatalysts is investigated using alkanolamine-functionalized silica acid-base catalysts for the aldol condensation reaction of 4-nitrobenzaldehyde and acetone. Two series of catalysts, one with and one without silanol-capping, are synthesized with varied alkyl linker lengths (two to five) connecting secondary amine and terminal hydroxyl functionalities. The reactivity of these catalysts is assessed to determine the relative potential for intermolecular (silane amine–surface silanol) vs intramolecular (amine–hydroxyl within a single silane) cooperativity, the impact of inhibitory surface–silane interactions, and the role of alkyl linker length and flexibility. For the array of catalysts tested, those with longer linker lengths generally give increased catalytic activity, although the turnover frequency trends differ between catalysts with and without surface silanol capping. Catalysts with alkyl-substituted amines lacking a terminal hydroxyl demonstrate an adverse effect of chain length, where the larger alkyl substituent on the amine provides steric hindrance depressing catalytic activity, while giving additional evidence for improved rates afforded by intramolecular cooperativity in the alkanolamine materials. The silanol-capped alkanolamine catalyst with the longest alkyl linker is found to be the most active alkanolamine catalyst due to its hydrophobized surface, which removes hypothesized silanol–alkanolamine inhibitory interactions, with the sufficient length and flexibility of its amine–hydroxyl linker allowing for favorable conformations for cooperativity. This study demonstrates the feasibility of and important factors affecting intramolecular cooperative activity in acid–base heterogeneous organocatalysis.
@article{xie_inter-_2019, title = {Inter- and Intramolecular Cooperativity Effects in Alkanolamine-Based Acid-Base Heterogeneous Organocatalysts}, volume = {4}, url = {https://doi.org/10.1021/acsomega.8b02690}, doi = {10.1021/acsomega.8b02690}, number = {1}, journal = {ACS Omega}, author = {Xie, Jingwei and Ellebracht, Nathan C. and Jones, Christopher W.}, month = jan, year = {2019}, pages = {1110--1117} }
Chemical Engineering
Mechanochemistry-assisted hydrolysis of softwood over stable sulfonated carbon catalysts in a semi-batch process

David Scholz, Jingwei Xie, Oliver Kröcher, and 1 more author

RSC Advances, Jan 2019

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The hydrolysis of lignocellulose is the first step in saccharide based bio-refining. The recovery of homogeneous acid catalysts imposes great challenges to the feasibility of conventional hydrolysis processes. Herein, we report a strategy to overcome these limitations by using stable sulfonated carbons as solid acid catalysts in a two-step process, composed of mechanocatalytic pretreatment and secondary hydrolysis in a semi-batch reactor. Without mechanocatalytic pre-treatment the hydrolysis of the insoluble substrate largely occurs through homogeneously catalyzed reactions. Ball-milling induced amorphization promotes a substantially higher substrate reactivity, because homogeneous hydrolysis occurs preferentially from less ordered structural domains in cellulose. In contrast, concerted ball-milling (CBM) of cellulose with the sulfonated carbon promotes a heterogeneously catalyzed hydrolysis to soluble oligosaccharides. By performing an in-depth physicochemical characterization of cellulose subjected to CBM treatment with different carbons, we reveal the crucial role of strong Brønsted acid sites in facilitating mechanocatalytic depolymerization. Recyclability experiments confirmed that despite being subject to profound structural changes during repeated pre-treatment/semi-batch hydrolysis cycles, the sulfonated carbon retained its catalytic activity. The combination of mechanocatalytic pretreatment with strong solid acids and hydrolysis in the semi-batch reactor was successfully extrapolated for the first time to the hydrolysis of real lignocellulose to achieve quantitative yields in C5 and high yields in C6 derived products.
@article{scholz_mechanochemistry-assisted_2019, title = {Mechanochemistry-assisted hydrolysis of softwood over stable sulfonated carbon catalysts in a semi-batch process}, volume = {9}, issn = {2046-2069}, url = {https://xlink.rsc.org/?DOI=C9RA07668A}, doi = {10.1039/C9RA07668A}, language = {en}, number = {57}, journal = {RSC Advances}, author = {Scholz, David and Xie, Jingwei and Kröcher, Oliver and Vogel, Frédéric}, year = {2019}, pages = {33525--33538} }