In part one of the article “China’s road to a greener future” we talked about the first six issues like smog, globalsation or climate change. Changhua Wu, speaker at the Global Female Leaders 2018, reflected for us the year 2017 on the topic sustainable development in China. Let’s discuss the next six highlights!
Changhua Wu is China/Asia Director of Office of Jeremy Rifkin and a dedicated advisor to governments and corporations on sustainability strategy and innovation. A professional policy analyst of China’s sustainability policy and practices, she is also a frequent speaker at international fora and a public voice at both Chinese and international media on China and global clean and smart revolution. Changhua founded Teconet to bridge cross-border clean technology with China market and capital and the Academy by working with a network of young professionals and partners from around the world to upscale education of human talents to deliver the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda.
Changhua, an award winner for her leadership in China‘s low carbon transformation, also sits on various global leadership and expert councils and panels, including World Economic Forum Future Council on Environment and Natural Resources Security and Technology Pioneers judging panel, Governing Council of Asia Pacific Water Forum, World Green Design Organization, and Green Growth Alliance of National New Areas, among others.
She was Greater China Director of The Climate Group, Director of China Studies of World Resources Institute, and Editor of the English edition of China Environment News.
12 highlights in 2017
We have 12 highlights on the list of China’s greening pathway forward reflected by speaker Changhua Wu. In the second part we will list the last six issues. If you have not read the first part of the article, click here.
7
China-Norway Relation
Seventh is Smart City. China and Norway re-launched their bilateral diplomatic relationship after six years freezing. This helped greatly re-release the long-held aspiration to be part of China’s clean revolution in the Nordic country. Oslo Innovation Week shall become a must-go event for colleagues in related sectors. And the Nordic Edge, now three successfully held, leads smart city innovation, with technology and industry expo, besides forum and match-making, shall become a powerful bilateral collaborative platform to jointly advance solutions.
8
China-US Relation
Eighth is US-China Bilateral Summits. The US remains China’s most important international relationship. The two Presidents, through two visits, have established some level of trust and personal relationship so that the channel of communication remains open. While fore-sight, wisdom, maturity of the two leaders remain quite apart, such an open and candid relationship offers global community more confidence that the two largest economies of the world will continue to tango for the sake of not only their own interests but global interests too. One of the highlights of the bilateral relationship is collaboration in energy and environment, which covers climate change too at local and corporate level. While people disagree with President Trump’s decision when he announced to withdraw US from the Paris Agreement, Governor Brown and Michael Bloomberg have become the signposts of the continued committed actions to tackle climate change from US, which provides some level of confidence to others globally.
9
The 4th Industrial Revolution
Ninth is the 4th Industrial Revolution. Professor Schwab wrote the best-seller “The 4th Industrial Revolution” in 2016, with a focus on trends and impact of digital, physical and biological technologies coming together. We definitely all feel the impact today when robots, AI, machine learning, autonomous vehicles, cloud computing, 3D printing among others are becoming part of our lives. But there are deeper issues to be concerned, such as the impact of machines on people’s jobs and privacy, who controls digital ID. To address such daunting challenges, the World Economic Forum organised 35 future councils, with 840 leading experts around the world, to focus on solutions and design a better future. And in 2017, WEF is rolling out a new report – A Handbook to help leaders shape the future of the 4th Industrial Revolution.
10
Alternative drive systems
Tenth is No Sale of Fossil Fuel Vehicles. China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology made an official commitment to forbid sales of fossil fuel vehicles in the coming decades. China becomes one of a list of countries that have made similar commitment, such as Norway, France, UK, India among others. Though not a clear year set yet, the guesses are around 2030, when China commits to peak its emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs). We all know that transportation contributes to large amount of emissions in China. If China is to deliver its commitment of peaking emissions, emissions from transportation have to be effectively addressed. China joining the league also increases the speed of global transformation towards clean transportation due to its size and scale of the market.
11
Water Security
Eleventh is Water Security. Changhua spent lots of time this year on water security. Globally, she was a member of the Expert Panel for the High-Level Panel on Water under the leadership of UN SG and World Bank President, with eleven heads of states, to draft Preamble and Principles of Valuing Water. Through two writing sessions, Bellagio and Delft, this piece of work was successfully completed and submitted to the High-level Panel on Water (HLPW). At regional level, as Vice Chair of Governing Council of Asia Pacific Water Forum, Changhua contributed to the design and organisation of the 3rd Asia Pacific Water Summit, jointly with the Government of the Republic of Myanmar. Organised every five years, the 3rd Summit was delivered successfully at a time when water security threatens regional sustainable development and when UN Water for Sustainable Development – International Decade of Actions is to officially kick off in 2018. The Yangon Declaration: The Pathway Forward, adopted at the end of the Summit, reflects the consensus and shared commitment to implementation of water-related SDGs, and also the regional alliance to be part of the International Decade of Actions.
12
Protecting Planet Earth
Twelve is Global Recognition of China’s Contributions. The year of 2017 started with Dr Li Junfeng, former Director of Climate Change Center of National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), winning Zayed Future Energy Life-long Contribution Award, and ended with three winners from China for the six United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Champions of the Earth, when Hebei Saihanba Forest Farm, Wang Wenbiao, Chairman of the Board of the Elion Group, and Hu Weiwei, Founder and CEO of Mobike are recognised for their contribution to protecting the Earth Planet. What an achievement!
China is looking back to great achievements in 2017. This is perfectly aligned with the message delivered by President Xi Jinping at the Davos Forum back in January when he laid out China’s vision of a shared human destiny and China’s role and leadership in global environmental governance. Besides wisdom and determination, Chinese are also taking actions to contribute to China’s own ecological civilisation and global sustainable development. Let’s see what the year 2018 will bring for China.
Global Female Leaders 2017: A Thorough Look Back
To sum up this great event in a single blogpost would be nearly impossible. Fortunately, we don’t have to try this, because our dear partner Accenture provided us with an in-depth White Paper, that you can now download on our website!
Just fill out the form below and enjoy over 50 pages of insights and key takeaways from the 2017 summit. We thank Accenture for their contribution and hope you enjoy the read!
