Pins on a map

World maps have long caught the eye of those bitten by the travel bug. Pins mark the places they’ve been or want to visit. One such explorer, Rong Bao, ’21, took her fascination a step further: She steered her career toward how all those pins impact one another.

Bao’s work sits at the intersection of global trade and sustainability. The goal is to determine how to make global trade more sustainable.

“International trade accounts for about 20 to 30% of global carbon dioxide emissions,” Bao says. “[My team] looks at how to restructure and reform the World Trade Organization’s global trade system [to address] sustainability and climate change.”

Bao coordinates the Remaking Trade for a Sustainable Future project at the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy. Her efforts convene thought leaders through global workshops, collaborations with partner organizations, and white papers detailing best practices and policy suggestions.

For some, professional interests end when they clock out for the day. Not for Bao, who co-founded 2030 Climate+ in her free time. “We are a youth-led sustainability organization in China. We launched one of the first podcast series in China focused on climate education and green industries,” a podcast later recognized by the Yale Center for Business and the Environment for its innovation.

Bao also considers how one’s worldview impacts the ecosystem. “I was lucky enough to have grown up in an environment largely undisturbed by [noticeable] climate change or extreme weather,” Bao says, noting that this privilege can prevent people from recognizing the urgency of global warming. “Climate change is cross-culture, cross-boundary, cross-nation. It’s an international problem.”

To counteract that geographical privilege, Bao encourages people to become “aware of the bigger picture … by getting out of your current environment. Realizing what you take for granted is the first step.”