The International Climate Action Initiative for Digital Ecological Civilization was officially launched

On December 3, the China Corner of the 28th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP28) held a side event on "Digital Empowerment of the Ecological Civilization Process - Strengthening Public Participation in Climate Action", where representatives of various enterprises and institutions had in-depth discussions and exchanges on topics such as carbon neutrality and the construction of a carbon inclusive system. The International Climate Action Initiative for Digital Ecological Civilization, launched during the side event, has become one of the important non-governmental achievements of the international climate action theme of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Dubai.

 Digitalization empowers the process of ecological civilization

The International Climate Action Initiative for Digital Ecological Civilization was jointly launched by the Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and Mung Bean Sprouts, a Chinese green technology company, to promote international information sharing through digital means, encourage more global partners to participate, strengthen communication and collaboration on climate action, accelerate green and low-carbon actions and cooperation, and improve ESG governance capabilities.

The participants said that transparent and accurate climate information disclosure is not only the basis for the international community to strengthen cooperation and form synergies, but also an important part of promoting global climate governance and implementing the Paris Agreement. Chinese local governments, institutions and enterprises can use this platform to share China's practices and experiences on climate action with global partners, while listening to the world's voices, sharing information with other countries, and deepening cooperation.

Lian Xirui, the initiator of the initiative and the official Chinese partner of the UNFCCC Secretariat, is also the founder and CEO of mung bean sprouts. She said that the participants of the initiative will engage and cooperate with the Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to share and integrate urban governance experience and knowledge, and disclose climate-related information to the Secretariat through mung bean sprouts every year, including goals, action commitments, progress, etc. Over the years, Mung Bean Sprouts has been committed to promoting in-depth contact and cooperation between Chinese cities and enterprises and the international community, promoting multi-party information sharing and integrating urban and corporate governance experience and knowledge, and hopes that more partners will join in the future to lead the wave of global environmental governance.

Hanan Sakr, representative of the COP28 Organising Committee and head of the Office of the Special Envoy for Climate Change, and Todd Edwards, head of global climate action at the UNFCCC Secretariat, said that in the future, they will jointly call on Chinese local governments and enterprises to share more information on climate action.

       Contribute China's solutions to the world

At the meeting, the Beijing Institute of Sustainable Development and other institutions became the first batch of participants in the initiative, and heated discussions were held on topics such as carbon neutrality, information disclosure, and the construction of a carbon inclusive system.

In response to information disclosure, Ma Jun, president of the Beijing Institute of Green Finance and Sustainable Development, praised the initiative. He said that information disclosure is one of the four pillars of green finance, and strengthening information disclosure has a positive impact on financial institutions and capital markets to identify green and sustainable economic activities and give full play to the role of resource allocation.

As one of the implementation actions of the "International Climate Action Initiative for Digital Ecological Civilization", the carbon hut was also unveiled at the meeting. The person in charge of the carbon hut introduced the experience of carbon huts in coping with mitigation and adaptation to global climate change. In January 2021, the first carbon hut was put into use in Tuanjin Street, Wuhou District, Chengdu City, Sichuan Province, and has developed rapidly in the past two years, and has taken root in more than 10 cities in Sichuan, Yunnan, Guangdong, Shandong, Inner Mongolia and other provinces and cities. As an urban carbon inclusive product, the carbon hut has built a trinity renewable resource recovery network with "sorting center as the platform, recycling network as the support, and modern transportation as the link", which can help the local government promote the construction of near-zero carbon communities, and plans to land 3,000 across the country in the next year.

In the roundtable forum on "Public Digital Climate Action, Experience and Case Sharing of Relevant Carbon Credit Standard Construction", the participants discussed the actions in the field of public climate mitigation activities, and also shared some hot topics such as the construction of low-carbon ecological cities, the development of carbon credits for methane emission reduction, and the management of building carbon emissions throughout the life cycle.

The panelists also said that this initiative is just the beginning, and that in the future, more participants will be united to allow the Chinese government, institutions and enterprises to join the team of leaders in this global climate action, and strive to achieve the goal of "enabling China to achieve a major transformation from a participant in global environmental governance to a leader, and contribute Chinese solutions and wisdom to global climate governance".