On November 30, the 3rd overseas special activity of the World Young Scientists Summit 2023 (“WYSS 2023”) was held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. As one of the “China Corner” Side Events of the 28th Conference of the Parties to United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP28), this activity was held on the opening day of COP28 on the theme of “Energy Green Transformation and Youth Innovation”. It showcased the proactive efforts and achievements made by the WYSS, related new energy forums, and winners of the Young Scientists Sustainable Development Goals Award in promoting clean energy transformation and coping with global climate change.
Address Major Global Challenges
China Accelerated Technological Innovation in Green Transformation
On November 16, 2023, President Xi Jinping pointed out at the APEC leaders’ informal dialogue with guests in San Francisco that sustainable development is the “golden key” to solving current global problems. He called on efforts to forge a new path of transformation for green development and promote the transformation and upgrading of energy structure in order to see to it that reducing carbon emissions and mitigating pollution proceed in parallel with expanding green transition and promoting economic growth, and turn planet Earth into a homeland of coordinated development of the economy and the environment. Ensuring energy safety, protecting the ecological environment, and coping with climate change are common challenges in the world. Driven by carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals, energy cooperation has become the main direction of global cooperation.
“Since green and clean energy will be the focus of global energy development in the future, its growth requires the all-round support of new materials and technologies. China is stepping up efforts to adjust and improve its industrial structure and energy structure and seeking to forge new development advantages and promote green transformation through technological innovation.” Wang Xiaoguang, Director of the Carbon Peaking and Carbon Neutrality Promotion Center of China Federation of Industrial Economics, said in his speech that WYSS provides a platform to gather outstanding young scientists from all over the world to jointly cope with global major challenges. Over the past five years, with an eye on the United Nations 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development, WYSS has established intimate cooperation on sustainable development and dealing with global challenges based on annual topics such as youth innovation. It has offered support to young scientists in innovation and entrepreneurship, fostered new growth drivers of green and low-carbon development, and created a more open and inclusive environment.
Director Wang Xiaoguang also mentioned that Wenzhou is a pilot zone of China’s reform and opening up as well as an important birthplace of the private economy. In recent years, Wenzhou has focused on building a national new energy production capacity center and application demonstration city. An entire industry chain covering nuclear, wind, solar, water and hydrogen energy storage has been built in the city. Relying on the WYSS platform, it has joined hands with the global scientific community to promote in-depth exchanges among global scientific talents, making important contributions to advancing the green energy transformation process.
Liu Yunhu, Director of the Working Committee of Partnership SDG Action 35553, delivered a special report titled “Energy Transformation Development for SDGs” at the conference. He stressed that practicing SDG sustainable lifestyles is an inevitable choice for mankind.
Build A Community with A Shared Future for Mankind
WYSS Mobilized Global Youths to Develop the New Energy Industry
Lin Jianbo, Party Secretary and Vice Chairman of Wenzhou Association for Science and Technology and Director of the WYSS Wenzhou Executive Committee Office, introduced the WYSS sessions of previous years. He said WYSS strives for the vision of building a community with a shared future for mankind by organizing activities on the theme of “Converging the World’s Talents, Creating a Better Future”. It has been held for five consecutive years since 2019, providing a global stage for young scientific talents to display ambitions and realize dreams.
With an eye on the general trend of global industrial development and changes, WYSS gathers intellectual resources to address technical challenges and is rapidly generating a number of development, innovation and institutional outcomes. Over the five WYSS sessions, more than 80 platforms have been established, over 850 projects have been successfully implemented, and 1,686 high-level talents were attracted to join the industry.
When introducing new energy developments in Wenzhou and the new energy forums of WYSS, Lin Jianbo said that new energy is one of the five strategic emerging sectors that Wenzhou is focusing on developing. Currently, Wenzhou’s new energy industry reports an industrial output value of RMB 98.71 billion. A number of highly specialized new energy enterprises have been established in this city. Efforts are also made to build a new energy industry chain. Based on the WYSS platform, a number of new energy industry forum brands have been created successfully. Events such as Energy Materials, International Symposium on Carbon Energy, and Energy Storage Forum of the Hundred Distinguished Young Scholars, are among the most popular WYSS activities that have attracted global high-level young scientists to conduct exchanges and dialogues. At the summit, Chou Shulei, Director of the Institute for Carbon Neutralization of Wenzhou University, delivered an online report to share his views on the application prospects of sodium-ion batteries in grid energy storage. As a matter of fact, Chou Shulei himself is a typical example of WYSS’ efforts to attract talents and their team to boost industrial development. After participating in the WYSS for three consecutive years, Chou decided to implement his sodium-ion battery project in Wenzhou with his team, helping the city seize the emerging market of new energy industry.
Solicit Topics Globally
Encourage Young Scientists to Contribute to Sustainable Development
Three winners of the First Young Scientists Sustainable Development Goals Award, namely Professor Henry Snaith from Oxford University, Professor Xiong Wen (David) Lou from the City University of Hong Kong, and Professor Zhang Qiang from Tsinghua University, made video reports at a special session held during WYSS.
According to Wu Jie, Executive Secretary-General of WYSS Secretariat, the Young Scientists Sustainable Development Goals Award was jointly launched by WYSS and the International Research Center of Big Data for Sustainable Development Goals (CBAS). It is set up to recognize young scientists who have made significant innovative achievements and outstanding contributions through natural science research or engineering technology in support of one or more Sustainable Development Goals. As such, it will motivate more young scientists to contribute their strength in the field of science and technology to sustainable development.
This special session also included a solicitation from young elites in the global scientific community for global issues to be discussed at the energy forums of 2024 WYSS.
It is learned that, before the start of the special session, the delegation of the WYSS Wenzhou Executive Committee Office introduced WYSS to Huang Runqiu, Minister of Ecology and Environment of China, Xie Zhenhua, Special Representative for Climate Change Affairs of China, Liu Zhenmin, former Assistant Foreign Minister and former UN Deputy Secretary-General, Xia Yingxian, Director of the Department of Climate Change under China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment, and other leaders who participated in the “China Corner” Side Event. Erik Solheim, former UN Deputy Secretary-General and Executive Director of the UN Environmental Programme (UNEP) and senior adviser at World Resources Institute, Pan Jiahua, academician of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and member of China National Expert Panel on Climate Change, Kieron Stopforth, Global Flexibility Manager at Octopus Energy in UK and other experts exchanged views with the delegation of the WYSS Wenzhou Executive Committee Office on WYSS and green energy transformation in Wenzhou. Other experts including Prof. Ahmed, Vice President of United Arab Emirates University, Dr. Abdullah Mohammed Alkhedhair, an expert at the Carbon Management Technology Center of Saudi Arabia, and Yang Yuntong, Director of the International Cooperation and Project Operations Department of Phoenix New Media, were invited to attend the special session.
Thanks to constant moves on the global stage, WYSS has witness continuous increase in its influence. The WYSS 2023 consisted of three overseas special activities. In addition to the one held in the United Arab Emirates, another activity held at the United Nations Headquarters in New York in September this year promoted WYSS achievements and introduced the Young Scientists Sustainable Development Goals Award. The third one was held in Brussels, the capital of Belgium, in October, attracting over 180 guests from nearly 20 countries and regions to discuss topics such as youth growth, global challenges and new opportunities for China-EU innovation cooperation.
Mor Details: About COP28
The Conference of Parties (COP) is the highest decision-making body of the “United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change” (UNFCCC). This annual conference is convened by the UN to assess the progress in responding to climate change and work out solutions to global climate change. COP 28, standing for the 28th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the UNFCCC, is an important UN climate summit.
It will be held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, from November 30 to December 12. 198 parties, including all UN member states and the European Union, will participate in the conference. The first Global Stocktake (GST) will be held at the conference since it was agreed upon in the Paris Agreement, which will be of great significance for advancing global climate governance. According to the plan, the two-year stocktake will be concluded at the Dubai climate summit. It mainly assesses the overall implementation of the Paris Agreement by revealing the climate action progress of all parties and identifying their gaps based on the information collected. In the end, COP 28 will adopt a resolution on the results of the stocktake and the direction of future climate action, which may include new commitments made by governments.
All UN member states and the EU are parties to UNFCCC. COP has been committed to implementing the “Paris Agreement” since its adoption in 2015, including holding the rise in global temperature to “well below 2 degrees Celsius” and “pursuing efforts” to limit the increase to 1.5 degrees. As one of the first parties to UNFCCC, China has been actively involved in global governance on climate change.
During the conference, the Chinese delegation will hold a “China Corner” side event in the Blue Zone of Expo City Dubai. The event will consist of 9 theme days, namely opening day, youth day, mitigation day, technology and funding day, adaptation day, cooperation day, renewable energy day, digital transformation day and enterprise day. Besides that, many other local and industry sessions will be held at the same time.
It is reported that more than 70,000 people will attend COP 28, making it the climate conference of the largest size in history and with the widest influence in recent years.