Sep. 24-25, EU-China Seminar on Green Recovery and Green Stimulus was held in Beijing, co-hosted by Institutes of Science and Development of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CASISD) and the Delegation of the European Union to China (EUD). 

"The year 2020 marks the 45^th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and the EU, and the bilateral cooperation will remain unshaken and is growing even stronger with huge potential in the field of green recovery," said PAN Jiaofeng, CASISD President, during his welcoming remarks.  

"This seminar is an important event to implement the outcomes of the China-Germany-EU Summit, with the latest policies and experiences in accelerating green recovery and green development shared under the theme of Green Recovery," Pan added. 

Mr. XIE Zhenhua, Special Advisor on Climate Change Affairs of Ministry of Ecology and Environment of China, emphasized in the opening ceremony that "China should integrate the short, medium and long-term goals of addressing climate change with the economic, social and environmental goals, in the process of formulating China’s 14^th Five-Year Plan, renewing Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) and releasing medium and long-term low-carbon development strategies."

In order to promote green, low-carbon, circular and high-quality development in all fields of China, series of measures have been rolled out, including upgrading industrial structure by optimizing energy mix, constructing low-carbon infrastructure and avoiding high-carbon lock-in, building a green transportation system, developing circular economy and enabling efficient use of resources, encouraging technology innovation, developing green finance, proposing the supporting economic policies, and improving the carbon market. 

H.E. Nicolas Chapuis, EU Ambassador to China, said that China and the EU are aligned on the strategic goals in green recovery, and EU has strengthened the investment in the green and digital transition in its post-epidemic recovery plan. Among the economic incentive fund of 750 billion Euros, a considerable amount is aimed to realize the climate goals. 

"Climate change action and environment protection are extremely powerful drivers of innovation and employment, and they strengthen our competitiveness and become more resilient to crisis," Svenja Schulze, German Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, said in her video remark.  

"Germany has invested over 40 billion Euros from the economic recovery package to create a climate and nature friendly society, covering green hydrogen industry, renewable energy, energy upgrade, green buildings and transportation, etc.," she added. 

WANG Yi, Vice President of CASISD, presented the recent studies of his research group and released the report of China-EU Cooperation on Green Recovery.  

In the end, Wang revealed the final consensus in this seminar that green recovery, especially the climate change, is one of the essential missions of post-pandemic economic recovery, which requires interdepartmental cooperation so as to develop a comprehensive and systematic solution, including inter-government cooperation, local experience sharing, third-party market cooperation, and communication between Chinese and European think tanks, etc.

Furthermore, China and the EU should expand cooperation on some key issues and priority areas, such as NDC goal setting, path selection, addressing difficult and divergent issues, as well as green finance, clean transportation, renewable energy, biodiversity conservation, and circular economy.