The Dialogue on Sustainable Development of Chinese and Foreign Entrepreneurs was successfully held in Dubai

At noon on December 1, on the occasion of the opening of the World Climate Action Summit, the Sustainable Development Dialogue of Chinese and Foreign Entrepreneurs was successfully held in the Green Zone of the 28th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP28). The dialogue was co-hosted by the Publicity and Education Center of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and Chinanews.com, with the theme of "Corporate Sustainable Development Strategies for Global Carbon Neutrality". Xie Zhenhua, China's Special Envoy for Climate Change, attended the meeting and delivered a speech, and Liu Zhenmin, Senior Advisor of the Chinese Delegation to COP28, attended the meeting. Peter Bakker, President and CEO of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, Fu Chengyu, former Chairman of China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation and Founding President of the International Institute of Carbon Neutrality, and Wang Shi, Founder and Honorary Chairman of the Board of Directors of Vanke Group and Chairman of Vanke Foundation, delivered keynote speeches. Li Donghui, CEO of Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, Lorenzo Simonelli, Chairman and CEO of Baker Hughes, Li Pengcheng, CEO of Mengniu Group, Francisco Ruiz-Tagle, President of CMPC Chile, Xu Hong, Chief Financial Officer of Alibaba Group, Jin Junhui, Director of JA Solar Technology Co., Ltd., Anant Maheshwari, President and CEO of Honeywell's Global High Growth Region, and 20 other well-known Chinese and foreign entrepreneurs attended the meeting, and Tian Chengchuan, Director of the Publicity and Education Center of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, and Dominic Vogre, Executive Vice President of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, co-chaired the dialogue.

In his speech, Xie Zhenhua pointed out that climate change is a severe global challenge, which is related to the future and destiny of mankind, and requires all sectors of society to work together and respond to it. Global climate governance has shifted from rule-making to action-making, and achieving climate change goals can give rise to various new technologies and new business forms, create a huge green market, and unleash strong new drivers of economic growth. At the dialogue meeting, Xie Zhenhua conveyed good news to everyone: Developing countries, especially fragile countries, are most concerned about the issue of loss and damage, and great progress has been made this year, and some developed countries have put forward a total donation target of more than $300 million. Xie Zhenhua emphasized that the government proposed to implement the goals, the key is in various industries, enterprises, the action of enterprises can really make us close to the goal and achieve the goal, the implementation of the action of entrepreneurs is very important. In the process of addressing climate change, enterprises are important participants and the main body to realize the vision of carbon neutrality. Tackling climate change is both a crisis and an opportunity for businesses. It is hoped that Chinese and foreign entrepreneurs will seize the opportunity and take active actions to empower the carbon reduction and decarbonization of the industrial chain and supply chain, and make greater contributions to the global response to climate change and sustainable development.

In his keynote speech, Peter Bakker highly recognized China's contributions and efforts in sustainable development and accelerating the realization of carbon neutrality in recent years, praised China's leading business leaders for their vivid practices in sustainable development, and said that Chinese business leaders have an indispensable role in the international response to climate change. At the same time, he hopes to bring together business companies around the world to discuss how to achieve scale and accelerate transformation to achieve greater progress.

In his keynote speech, Fu Chengyu said that this year is the most active, enthusiastic and largest number of participants in the UN climate conference, which shows that Chinese enterprises are more active, more conscious and more proactive in responding to climate change. If Chinese entrepreneurs want to take the path of comprehensive transformation of green development, green transformation must be driven by technological innovation.

In his keynote speech, Wang Shi said that enterprises are the main body of practice in implementing the carbon neutrality strategy and the key element for countries to fulfill their carbon peak and carbon neutrality commitments. Therefore, the carbon neutrality strategy of enterprises has formed a community relationship with the sustainable development of enterprises. It is hoped that all entrepreneurs will think about how to bring together enterprises, communities, governments, think tanks, investment institutions and other relevant parties to jointly promote carbon emission reduction and carbon neutrality, which not only improves the ability of enterprises to cope with climate change, but also enhances the reputation and benefits of enterprises in the process of carbon neutrality.

In the dialogue session, Chinese and foreign entrepreneurs had in-depth exchanges on two topics: "The Impact of Global Carbon Neutrality on Enterprises and Their Countermeasures" and "Technology and Management Innovation for Corporate Carbon Neutrality".

Li Donghui said that as an automotive company from China to the world, Geely Holding Group focuses on environmental, social and corporate governance, adheres to the concept of sustainable development, and continues to promote the green and low-carbon transformation of the entire industry chain. Geely has joined the United Nations Global Compact and pledged to achieve carbon neutrality by 2045. Focusing on this goal, Geely has accelerated the innovation and deployment of new energy and intelligent technologies, and explored the path of carbon neutrality with Chinese characteristics applicable to the automotive industry and the mobility sector from three aspects: carbon emission reduction, carbon utilization, and carbon management.

Lorenzo Simonelli shared the progress of Baker Hughes' green and low-carbon technology innovation, which continues to provide cutting-edge technology solutions for carbon capture, storage and utilization (CCUS), as well as hydrogen energy, methane emission management and other low-carbon energy transition fields.

In 2021, Mengniu released the GREEN sustainable development strategy, and took the lead in releasing the carbon neutrality strategy, promising to achieve carbon neutrality in the entire industrial chain by 2050, and setting specific goals for 2030 in terms of pasture carbon reduction, renewable energy use, and green factories. Continue to minimize carbon emissions in the production process through digital and intelligent innovation. And actively play a leading role and make greater contributions to the carbon reduction of the supply chain.

Francisco Ruiz-Tagle shared the experience of sustainability at CMPC Group. CMPC Group has just been named the world's most sustainable company in paper and forest products by the 2023 Dow Jones Sustainability World Index (DJSI), setting carbon reduction targets and validating the science-based targets (SBTi) to ensure that the actions taken to achieve these goals are scientifically valid.

Xu Hong shared Alibaba Group's green and low-carbon development practices, and Alibaba is the first Chinese internet company to release the Carbon Neutrality Action Report, which proposes three carbon neutrality commitments based on three strategies: accelerating energy transition, strengthening digital technology innovation, and broadly building a participant ecosystem. Ranked No. 1 in green power procurement by Chinese technology companies, more than half of the electricity used by Alibaba's self-operated cloud computing data centers comes from clean energy, which strongly supports the low-carbon operation of the digital platform business ecosystem. Through leading digital technologies, we will promote enterprises to achieve green and low-carbon production, and drive a wide range of consumers to shift to more sustainable consumption through platform mechanisms.

In 2022, the company put forward the sustainable development concept of "Green to Green, Green to Grow, and Green to Great", hoping to work with the entire PV value chain to move towards green development based on its own actions.

Anant Maheshwari said that Honeywell, as a global leader in energy and climate transition solutions, provides sustainable aviation fuel, advanced plastic recycling process technology, energy storage solutions, hydrogen solutions and smart building energy and carbon management solutions, and is committed to helping enterprises improve efficiency and achieve sustainable development goals in the fields of energy use, operation management, and manufacturing through advanced digital and automation solutions.

Mark Thurber, Co-Chair of the U.S.-China Energy Cooperation Program and Partner at KN Legal, Su Shan Tan, General Manager of Institutional Banking at DBS Group, Cate Hight, Global Head of Sustainability & Responsibility at Bain & Company, Tom Reichert, CEO of ILM Environmental Resources Management Consulting Co., Ltd., and Huawei Group, Representatives of Tianqi Lithium Co., Ltd., Shenzhen Dashi Intelligent Co., Ltd. and other enterprises participated in the dialogue.

In conclusion, Tian Chengchuan pointed out that at present, global cooperation to address climate change has entered a critical stage, and the development concept and action of enterprises are crucial to achieving global carbon emission reduction goals. The holding of the Sustainable Development Dialogue of Chinese and Foreign Well-known Entrepreneurs is an important attempt to promote the exchange and cooperation of entrepreneurs in sustainable development, an innovative action of world-renowned enterprises to actively respond to the theme of "Unity, Action and Implementation" of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Dubai, and an initiative issued by global industry and commerce to promote development and transformation and implement climate action, and I believe that it will play a positive role in enhancing the strategic management ability of enterprises for carbon neutrality and achieving high-quality sustainable development goals.

According to the consensus of the dialogue, the participating entrepreneurs jointly issued the "Action for a Global Livable Climate - COP28 Climate Conference Corporate Initiative", advocating that global industry and business actively respond to the Paris Agreement and the action goals of the Dubai Climate Conference, and establish a sustainable development strategy for carbon neutrality; Negative carbon emission and other technologies, establish a more sustainable business model, advocate and actively promote the establishment of an effective carbon emission management system, strengthen the greenhouse gas accounting and management of enterprises, support the industry to develop and improve carbon management standards and tools, advocate and actively support the cultivation of green and low-carbon culture, improve the awareness of the whole society of climate crisis and climate change, and strengthen the international exchange of carbon neutral industries and technologies. At the same time, the dialogue provided a high-level platform for Chinese enterprises to carry out international exchanges and cooperation on major global development and environmental issues, improve their ability to set topics, tell sustainable development stories, and establish a good international image, which was highly affirmed by the participating entrepreneurs.