The Third ISETS International Conference

“Geopolitics and Global Collaboration for Decarbonization”

28 November- 1 December 2025

 University of Tokyo (Hongo Campus), Tokyo, Japan

Information will be continuously updated】

 

The International Society for Energy Transition Studies (ISETS) will organise its third international conference on 28 November- 1 December 2025, in Tokyo, in cooperation with The Canon Institute for Global Studies.

The conference will address critical issues in sustainable energy transition and the global response to climate change. Its goal is to facilitate a comprehensive dialogue on the intersection of energy policy, climate governance, and technological innovation by bringing together leading academics, analysts, policymakers, and industry experts. This conference aims to foster collaborative approaches and innovative solutions for a sustainable and equitable energy future in the context of global climate challenges.

Call for Special Session proposals:

The ISETS International Conference is now accepting applications for “Concurrent Sessions.” Each concurrent session is approximately 100 minutes in duration and should include a minimum of 4 paper presentations. The session organizer or their team can present a maximum of 2 papers during the session. Session organizers will be responsible for promoting the workshop, selecting, and reviewing the final report papers.

Following the conclusion of the Conference, papers presented during the sessions will be considered for publication in special issues.

Please send your proposal to events@isets.org; and isets2025@hotmail.com.

Proposals to organize Sessions should include the following information:

  • The title of the Session
  • The name, affiliation, mailing address and e-mail address(es) of the proposer(s)
  • A description of the topic of the Session (not exceeding 100 words)
  • A short description on the means of advertisement for the Session
  • Paper title and authors

Call for papers:

Papers to be considered include but are not limited to the following list of topics:

  • Energy transition economics, policy and finance
  • Modelling and pathways to carbon neutrality
  • Energy, carbon, electricity and stock markets
  • Energy security, risks and economy
  • Finance and investment
  • Energy pricing and market dynamics
  • Environmental impacts and governance, ESG
  • Social impacts and management
  • Innovation, Research & Demonstration

Organizers:

International Society for Energy Transition Studies (ISETS)

Canon Institute for Global Studies (CIGS)

Graduate School of Public Policy (GraSPP), University of Tokyo

 

Co-Organizer:

tbc

Sponsors:

tbc

 

Honorary Conference Chairs

Xiansheng Sun Chairman, ISETS Council; Former Secretary-General, International Energy Forum
Nobuo Tanaka Co-Chair, ISETS Council; Executive Director Emeritus, International Energy Agency
Suwit Khunkitti Co-Chair, ISETS Advisory Committee; Vice Chairperson, Asian Institute of Technology; Former Deputy Prime Minister, Thailand

Conference Chairs

Xunpeng Shi ISETS President; University of Technology Sydney, Australia

Scientific Committee Chairs

Dayong Zhang Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, China
Farhad Taghizadeh-Hesary Tokai University, Japan
Yuli Shan University of Birmingham, UK

Scientific Committee Members

Jun Arima University of Tokyo, Japan
Weerawat Chantanakome Ministry of Energy, Thailand
Tsun Se Cheong The Hang Seng University of Hong Kong, China
Phoumin Han Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA)
Llewelyn Hughes Australian National University, Australia
Shabbir H. Gheewala Joint Graduate School of Energy and Environment (JGSEE), Thailand
Fukunari Kimura Keio University, Japan
Tatiana Mitrova Columbia University, USA
Victor Nian Centre for Strategic Energy and Resources (CSER), Singapore
Jinho Park Korea Energy Economics Institute (KEEI), South Korea
Maxensius Tri Sambodo Indonesian Institute of Sciences, Indonesia
Vinod Sharma Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research (IGIDR), India
Yongping Sun Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China
Yongping Zhai Tencent, China

Program Committee Chairs

Chairs
Qiang Ji Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
Qunwei Wang Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, China
Members
Yanfang Zhang Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, China
Xingyu Dai Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, China

International Organising Committee

Chair
Muyi Yang

Local Organising Committee Members

Ting Chen Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, China
Jianhao Xue Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, China
Mei Wang Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, China
Zhikai Zhang Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, China

Guests of Honor:

 

Keynote Speakers (To be updated):

Llewelyn Hughes

Australian National University, Australia

Dr. Hughes is a Professor at the Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University (ANU) and senior consultant in energy & environment for GR Group, a government affairs and public policy consultancy headquartered in Tokyo. His academic work is on how public policies affect, and are affected by, the low-carbon energy transition, with a particular focus on the Asia-Pacific region. An ongoing project examines how the rise of Global Value Chains affect the ability of governments to promote green growth industries. Before joining the ANU Dr. Hughes worked at the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University (GWU) in Washington DC, and before that the Consortium for Energy Policy Research at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. He has also been a visiting fellow at the Institute of Advanced Sustainability Studies in Potsdam, the Environmental Policy Research Centre (Forschungszentrums für Umweltpolitik) at Freie Universität, the Centre of Geopolitics of Energy and Raw Materials (CGEMP) at Université Paris Dauphine, Tokyo Foundation, Japan Business Federation (Keidanren), and the Japan Institute for Energy Economics (IEEJ).

Fukunari Kimura

President, IDE-JETRO

Prof. Fukunari Kimura is currently Professor Emeritus and Senior Professor, Keio University and President, Institute of Developing Economies, Japan External Trade Organization. He received his Bachelor of Laws from the Faculty of Law, University of Tokyo in 1982. He then received Master of Science and PhD titles from the Department of Economics, University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1990 and 1991, respectively. He worked for the Department of Economics, State University of New York at Albany as Assistant Professor in 1991-1994, and in the Faculty of Economics of Keio University as Associate Professor and Professor in 1994-2024. He was also Chief Economist, Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia in 2008-2024. He has been active in writing academic/semi-academic books and articles on international production networks and economic integration in East Asia.

Xiansheng Sun (孙贤胜)

Chairman, ISETS Council; Former Secretary-General, International Energy Forum (IEF)

Dr. Xiansheng Sun is the Chairman of the International Society for Energy Transition Studies (ISETS) and previously served as the fourth Secretary-General of the International Energy Forum. He has extensive experience with the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), where he played a pivotal role in negotiating and signing numerous collaborative contracts for projects both domestically and internationally. Additionally, Dr. Sun served as President of the CNPC Research Institute of Economics and Technology (RIET), the corporation’s think tank, until the end of 2015.

Nobuo Tanaka

Co-Chair, ISETS Council; Executive Director Emeritus, International Energy Agency (IEA)

Nobuo Tanaka is the Executive Director Emeritus of the International Energy Agency (IEA) and currently serves as Chairman of the steering committee for the Innovation for Cool Earth Forum (ICEF). As IEA’s Executive Director (2007-2011), he led the collective release of oil stocks in 2011. Beginning his career in 1973 at Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI), he held key roles, including Director-General of the Multilateral Trade System Department. As Minister for Industry, Trade, and Energy at Japan’s Embassy in Washington DC, he addressed major US-Japan trade issues. He also twice served as Director for Science, Technology, and Industry at the OECD in Paris. Now CEO of Tanaka Global Inc, he advises Japanese and international companies.

Tetsuya Watanabe

President, Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA)

Mr. Tetsuya Watanabe is President of the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA). With over 30 years of experience in international trade, economic policy, and regional cooperation, he has held key leadership positions at Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), including Director General for Trade Policy and Director General of the Multilateral Trade System Department. He also served as Special Advisor to the Minister of METI and Vice President of the Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI). In academia, he was a Visiting Professor at the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Public Policy. Mr. Watanabe earned his B.A. in Law from the University of Tokyo and his LL.M. from Columbia Law School. Throughout his career, he has been a strong advocate for multilateralism, sustainable economic development, and regional integration across ASEAN and East Asia.

Fushuan Wen

Professor and Director, Institute of Power Economics and Information, Zhejiang University, China; IEEE Fellow

Fushuan Wen has been a Full Professor and the Director of the Institute of Power Economics and Information at Zhejiang University (China) since 1997, and a Full Professor at Hainan Institute, Zhejiang University, since 2022. He is also the Director of the Sanya Global Energy Institute (China) and a Visiting Principal Research Scientist at the Shenzhen Institute of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics for Society (China). Professor Wen has held teaching and research positions at leading universities across Asia, Australia, and Europe, including the National University of Singapore, University of New South Wales, Queensland University of Technology, Technical University of Denmark, and CSIRO.

Professor Wen has published over 400 SCI-indexed papers, more than 750 EI-indexed papers, and over 870 Scopus-indexed papers, with his publications cited more than 23,800 times. He has completed and is currently undertaking more than 200 research grants and projects funded by governmental organizations and industry. He has been listed among “Most Cited Chinese Researchers” for ten consecutive years since 2015 by Elsevier.

He serves as the Editor-in-Chief of Energy Conversion and Economics (IET), Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Automation of Electric Power Systems and Smart Power & Energy Security, and as a Subject Editor for power system economics at IET Generation, Transmission & Distribution. He is also a member of the editorial boards of more than ten journals.

In recognition of his contributions to fault diagnosis in power grids, Professor Wen was elected as an IEEE Fellow.

Publication Opportunities


The ISETS 2025 Tokyo International Conference offers two distinct pathways for disseminating your work:

EI-Indexed Conference Proceedings

All papers accepted by the conference will be invited—post peer review at the event—to submit full manuscripts for fast-track inclusion in the EI-Indexed ISETS Conference Proceedings volume.

Journal Special Issues

Authors may also develop their work for one of our curated Special Issues. Current Calls (Tentative):

  1. Geopolitics and Global Collaboration for Decarbonization: Perspectives on Climate Governance, Green Finance, and Green Development

    • Journal: Economic Analysis and Policy

    • Guest Editors: Prof. Xunpeng Shi (UTS), Prof. Feng Wang (Chongqing University), Prof. Jian Yu (CUFE), Dr. Yi Jin (MUST)

    • Submission Deadline: 31 January 2026

  2. Navigating Socioeconomic Complexities in the Global Energy Transition

    • Journal: Frontiers in Environmental Science (Social-Ecological Urban Systems)

    • Topic Editors: Dr. Tsun Se Cheong (Hang Seng U.), Prof. Xunpeng Shi (UTS), Prof. Jian Yu (CUFE)

    • Submission: Via Frontiers online portal 


🔔 More Special Issues Coming Soon Additional Special Issues are in development and will be announced here—please check back for updates.

Please note: Only a small proportion of conference papers will be selected for publication; participation does not automatically guarantee publication. All submissions must meet the standard requirements of the respective journals. 

Important dates:

  • Abstract submission deadline: 31 July  2025 
  • Notification of Acceptance: 15 August 2025
  • Session proposal deadline: 30 August  2025
  • Early bird registration: 31 August 2025
  • Registration deadline: 15 October 2025
  • Conference: 28 Nov-1 December 2025

Submission Guide [Please use the templates]

Please note that all attendees （except for “call for session” participants）, whether making a presentation or not, need to go through the submission process.

Setp 1: Registration

Click on “LOGIN/REGISTER” on this conference website. Log in to your member portal. If you are new, you need to register. If you forget your password, please reset it. Your username is the one you chose during registration. You can also use your email address as your username.

Click on the “Personal Account” section in the upper right corner of the webpage. (If this is your first time registering, your personal name will be displayed as “[Empty Empty]” instead of your “[First name Given name]”. You only need to click on “ACCOUNT” in the “Personal Account” section to modify it.) Then, click on “My Events” to submit your paper and register for attendance. In “My Events,” select “The 2nd ISETS International Conference” under “AVAILABLE EVENTS” and click on “Register Now.”

 

You need to refresh the webpage and click on “CURRENT EVENTS” in the “MY EVENTS” section. You will then find an additional event titled “The 3rd ISETS International Conference, Tokyo” If this event title does not appear, please refresh the webpage again until it does. Then, click on the blue button labeled “ADD SUBMISSION.”

Setp 2: Step for individual participants who are only attending the conference without making a presentation 

Please write down “I attend the 3rd ISETS International Conference without presenting” in the “Title” and “Abstract” blanks. Please also fill in the remaining blanks with your information.

You may upload a blank (newly created) Word file in the “Files” field.

Once you have filled in all the submission information, click “SAVE” to complete the process.

Setp 3: Step for individual participants who are both attending the conference and making a presentation

 

Please complete all required information and submit your manuscript using the abstract template. If the download link for the Abstract Template does not appear, you can either refresh the webpage or click here to download it. Once you have filled in all the submission information, click “SAVE” to complete the process.

 

Setp 4: Pay the conference fee

After completing the submission information, the submission information in the “CURRENT EVENTS” section of your “MY EVENTS” column will be updated as shown in the figure below. The “SUBMISSION STATUS” will change to a gray “To be determined” button. At this point, the ISETS conference committee will review your submission and decide whether to accept or reject it.

 

After received an accepted email from ISETS2025 office. Your “SUBMISSION STATUS” will update to green “Approved”, and you can click “PAY NOW” to pay the conference fee. However, if you receive a rejected email from ISETS2025 office, you cannot find a “PAY NOW” button.

Please feel free to contact us when you meet any problems.

 

Contact Person: Dr Yanfang Zhang

Email: isets2025@hotmail.com

isets@isets.org

Please note that all attendees（except for “call for session” participants), whether making a presentation or not, need to go through the submission process. Please see the Submission Guide column firstly.

Registration Fees for Conference Participation:

Important Guidelines:

  1. Advance Payment Required: All registration fees must be paid in advance. Please note that onsite registration will not be available.
  2. Paper Inclusion in Program: To include a paper in the conference program, at least one author must register by 15 September 2024. For multiple accepted submissions, a different author is required to register and present each paper. Failure to comply will necessitate the withdrawal of one or more papers.
  3. Student Status Verification: Full-time students (excluding post-doctoral researchers) must provide proof of their status, such as a valid student ID card or a letter from the head of their institution or program director.
  4. Payment Methods: Fees should be paid online. In exceptional cases, payment via Bank Transfer can be arranged.

I. Bank Transfer

Bank: National Australia Bank
BSB (bank, state, branch): 082-356
BIC/SWIFT code: NATAAU3303M
Account number: 909690445
Beneficiary name and address: International Society for Energy Transition Studies, 5 Barraba Place, Bella Vista, NSW 2153, Australia.

When making a bank transfer payment, please include the attendee’s name in the Remittance Information. After completing the payment, log in to the system with your account, fill out the registration form, and upload a photograph or scanned copy of the remittance.

II. QR Code payment

When using QR code payment, please write the attendee’s conference registration email and name on the message board. Send the payment confirmation screenshot to isets2025@hotmail.com, and include the attendee’s conference registration email and name in the email.

Cancellations Policy
Once the registration fee is confirmed, no refunds can be issued from the original payment under any circumstances. However, if you are unable to attend, you may transfer your fully paid registration to another member of your organization. This substitution is allowed until September 30, 2025.

TBC.

TBC.

TBC.