Bo Fu

Title: Assistant Professor (Tenure Track)

E-mail: pkufubo@pku.edu.cn

Address: Xueyuanlu No. 38, Haidian district, Beijing, China

Personal profile

03/2025–Present Assistant Professor, Institute of Reproductive Health, School of Public Health, Peking University

01/2022–12/2024 Postdoctoral Researcher, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University

09/2016–07/2021 PhD, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University

09/2013–09/2016 Dual Bachelor’s Degrees, School of Mathematical Sciences, Peking University

09/2012–09/2016 Bachelor’s Degree, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University

Overall introduction

Dr. Fu employs an interdisciplinary research approach integrating geography, atmospheric science, and epidemiology to investigate the impacts and adaptation mechanisms of climate change and its secondary effects on reproductive health. His work includes the development of policy-climate-health coupling models for health risk assessment and adaptation studies. He has led one project funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) and participated in two National Key R&D Programs. As the first or corresponding author, he has published research articles in top international journals, including Nature Climate Change, PNAS, and One Earth, and serves as a reviewer for One Earth and Environmental Research. He teaches the undergraduate course "Climate Governance from a Health Perspective." He has been recognized with the Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award and was named an Excellent Communist Party Member at Peking University.

Main research directions

 Climate Epidemiology, Coupled Human System and Natural Environment

Representative scientific research projects

1. National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), 42201515, Biogeochemical feedbacks of methane and their impact on future climate change, 2023/01-2024/12，300,000 RMB, Principal Investigator, Ongoing.

2. Peking University Health Science Center (PKUHSC), BMU2025YJ002, Establishment of an Interdisciplinary Research Platform on Climate and Health, 2025/01-2025/12, 150,000 RMB, Principal Investigator, Ongoing.

10 representative papers

1. Bo Fu, Thomas Gasser, Bengang Li*, Shu Tao, Philippe Ciais, Shilong Piao, Yves Balkanski, Wei Li, Tianya Yin, Luchao Han, Xinyue Li, Yunman Han, Jie An, Siyuan Peng, Jing Xu, Short-lived climate forcers have long-term climate impacts via the carbon–climate feedback, Nature Climate Change, 2020, 10, 9.

2. Bo Fu#, Bengang Li#*, Thomas Gasser, Shu Tao, Philippe Ciais, Shilong Piao, Yves Balkanski, Wei Li, Tianya Yin, Luchao Han, Yunman Han, Siyuan Peng, Jing Xu, The contributions of individual countries and regions to the global radiative forcing, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2021, 118, 15.

3. Bo Fu, Jingyi Li, Yongye Jiang, Zhiwei Chen, Bengang Li*, Clean air policy makes methane harder to control due to longer lifetime, One Earth, 2024, 7, 7.

4. Bo Fu, Yongye Jiang, Guolong Chen, Mengmeng Lu, Yuqin Lai, Xinhao Suo, Bengang Li*, Unraveling the dynamics of atmospheric methane: the impact of anthropogenic and natural emissions, Environmental Research Letters, 2024, 19, 6.

5. Bo Fu, Jingyi Li, Thomas Gasser, Philippe Ciais, Shilong Piao, Shu Tao, Guofeng Shen, Yuqin Lai, Luchao Han, Bengang Li*, Climate warming mitigation from nationally determined contributions, Advances in Atmospheric Sciences, 2022, 39, 8.

6. Ke Jiang, Bo Fu, Zhihan Luo, Rui Xiong, Yatai Men, Huizhong Shen, Bengang Li, Guofeng Shen*, Shu Tao, Attributed radiative forcing of air pollutants from biomass and fossil burning emissions, Environmental Pollution, 2022, 306.

7. Guolong Chen, Bo Fu, Yongye Jiang, Xinhao Suo, Yuqin Lai, Zhiwei Chen, Jingyi Li, Longsheng Li, Mengmeng Lu, Yunwei Tang, Huadong Guo, Ruixia Yang, Bengang Li*, Natural world heritage sites are at risk from climate change globally, Communications Earth & Environment, 2024, 5,1.

8. Yunman Han, Bo Fu, Shu Tao, Dongqiang Zhu, Xuhui Wang, Shushi Peng, Bengang Li*, Impact of the initial hydrophilic ratio on black carbon aerosols in the Arctic, Science of The Total Environment, 2022, 817.

9. Jing Xu, Guofeng Shen, Bo Fu, Yunman Han, Xinhao Suo, Zhiwei Chen, Yuqin Lai, Jingyi Li, Longsheng Li, Luchao Han, Shu Tao, Bengang Li*, Emissions of particulate and previously ignored gaseous phosphorus from coal and biomass combustion in household stoves, Environmental Science & Technology Letters, 2023, 10, 11.

10. Ke Jiang, Yatai Men, Ran Xing, Bo Fu, Guofeng Shen*, Bengang Li, Shu Tao, Divergent energy-climate nexus in the global fuel combustion processes, Environmental Science & Technology, 2023, 57, 6

 Note：*Corresponding author, #Co-first author

 

Main research progress

 As a core issue linking natural and social systems, climate change is increasingly becoming one of the most complex public health challenges of the 21st century. The growing frequency of global warming and extreme climate events poses serious threats to human health, with particularly pronounced impacts on vulnerable populations such as pregnant women and newborns. Reproductive health serves not only as a key indicator of population health but also as a sensitive reflection of how social systems respond to changes in natural systems. In response to this critical scientific issue, our research team employs an interdisciplinary approach that integrates climate models, socioeconomic models, and epidemiological statistical models. Key areas of work include:

(1) Historical Responsibility for Climate Change

Climate change has caused wide-ranging and profound adverse impacts across multiple sectors, including health. Systematically assessing the historical responsibility of countries for climate change is essential for promoting equitable burden-sharing and for designing science-based mitigation policies. In collaboration with several domestic and international research institutions, our team conducted a comprehensive evaluation of the historical contributions of major countries to global warming. Results show that China’s cumulative contribution to global warming is less than 40% of that of the United States. The study also highlights the critical role of air pollutants in climate forcing processes (Nature Climate Change 2020; PNAS 2021; Advances in Atmospheric Sciences 2022).

(2) Impact of Climate Change on the Affordability of Healthy Diets

Climate change threatens global agricultural production through multiple pathways, reducing both crop yields and nutritional quality. There are also pronounced regional disparities in the vulnerability of food systems. Using a coupled analysis of crop yield models and integrated assessment models, our research finds that under high warming scenarios, climate change could result in millions more people worldwide being unable to afford a healthy diet—especially in low-income regions such as Africa and South Asia. In sharp contrast, regions with historically higher carbon emissions tend to experience relatively smaller impacts, underscoring issues of global climate inequity (Under review).

(3) Climate Pathway Optimization Considering Health Co-benefits

Coordinated air pollution control and carbon reduction has become a necessary path for China and the world to address both climate change and environmental pollution. When formulating related policies, it is crucial to account for health impacts and the complex interactions between pollutants and greenhouse gases. Based on climate modeling, our team finds that air pollution control policies aimed at improving air quality must be accompanied by stronger methane reduction strategies in order to achieve the intended climate and health co-benefits (One Earth 2024; Environmental Research Letters 2024).

Future work

 Future research on the impacts of climate change on reproductive health will focus on three core areas: risk identification, impact assessment, and mechanism-based modeling. The goal is to enhance the scientific foundation and policy relevance of climate-related health risk management. Key tasks include:

1. Utilizing birth population surveillance data to identify critical types of climate risks across different regions and seasons, and to uncover potential pathways through which climate change threatens reproductive health;

2. Estimating the potential reproductive health losses and their spatiotemporal distribution under multiple climate and socioeconomic scenarios, with a focus on identifying vulnerable regions and high-risk populations;

3. Developing a coupled natural–social system modeling framework with “health impacts” as a key linkage, to support the optimization of co-beneficial air pollution and carbon mitigation pathways and provide a scientific basis for policy design.