“Accelerating Carbon Neutrality: Innovative Actions for Sustainable Development” Project
The “Accelerating Carbon Neutrality: Innovative Actions for Sustainable Development” project has been jointly initiated by UNESCO, Mercedes-Benz Star Fund (MBSF) and CYDF on June 2022. The project seeks to facilitate sustainability science, education for sustainable development and capacity building, and provide stakeholders including youth with knowledge, skills, values and attitudes matching climate change response, including carbon footprint reduction, ecological protection and biodiversity conservation through "hand-in-hand action", "forest protection action", “partnership action” and " practical education base action" with the purpose to promote the practical action of ecological civilization and build a sustainable future for all.
The main progresses that have been made from June to December 2022 are listed as following:
People: Hand-in-Hand Action
- Climate change lecture hall:
The Global Climate Change Lecture was prepared in coordination with Institute of Climate Change and Sustainable Development (ICCSD), Tsinghua University. Prof. Shahbaz Khan, Director of UNESCO Beijing Office and Representative to China, DPRK, Japan, Mongolia and ROK, was invited to deliver a 45min lecture to students, sharing his experiences and insights that obtained from his 30 years working experiences at the front line contributing to the sustainable development, enhancing international cooperation, as well as fostering public awareness on carbon neutrality, biodiversity conservation and so on. An interaction between students and Prof. Shahbaz Khan was also planned to enable direct interaction and communication. Currently this activity was postponed due to Covid situation, it is planned to take place early next year when the new semester starts.
- Hackathon climate innovation Marathon:
University and middle school students’ creativity, innovation and commitment to sustainable and resilient development enhanced through Hackathon climate innovation Marathon, which enabled them to become active promoters of a more peaceful, tolerant, inclusive, safe and sustainable society.
After thorough online discussions with the faculty in charge of the Horizon Programme, School of Social Sciences and Tsinghua University, UNESCO Beijing Office decided to combine our strengths and organize the Climate Innovation Marathon together with the Integrated Research on Disaster Risk (IRDR) program.
The activity is expected to last for 3 months and will be completed in the first quarter of 2023.
- Mock negotiation of the United Nations Climate Change Conference:
University and middle school students’ s ambition and determination to engage in global climate network and global climate governance enhanced through mock negotiation of the United Nations Climate Change Conference.
After thorough discussions between UNESCO Beijing Office and the School of Environment, Tsinghua University, a consensus of future cooperation was reached on jointly organizing the Model Climate Change Conference of Parties (MCCCOP) event with the purpose of facing the world and focusing on climate change issues in China. In this respect, UNESCO Beijing Office has underlined the refined areas of cooperation with the School of Environment, Tsinghua University to jointly organize the MCCCOP.
This event is initiated by students from Tsinghua University and is expected to begin preparations in the first half of next year with a three-month preparation period and be held at Tsinghua University in September next year.
Planet: Forest Protection Action
- Ecosystem protection and biodiversity conservation knowledge competition:
Professionals’ and youth’s capacity in ecosystem protection and biodiversity conservation increased.
UNESCO Beijing Office and Hainan Institute of National Park (HINP) had the official launching ceremony of the project of “Accelerating Carbon Neutrality: Innovative Actions for Sustainable Development” online on 23rd 2022, and The two sides announced joint organization of capacity-building activities on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), knowledge contests and acknowledgement of outstanding works of science popularization with respect to ecosystem protection and biodiversity conservation aiming at raising primary and secondary school students' awareness and sense of responsibility for ecosystem and biodiversity conservation. These capacity building activities will last for half a year.
Partnership: Partnership Action
UNESCO Beijing Office has established solid partnership with Global Alliance of Universities on Climate (GAUC), which was initiated by Tsinghua University at the Davos World Economic Forum in January 2019 and officially established in May 2019. At present. GAUC has 15 world-class universities in 9 countries on six continents. After several rounds of preliminary communication with the UNESCO Beijing Office, GAUC has reached an intention of cooperation on climate change issues. It is proposed to cooperate on the following issues:
The secretariat of GAUC and ICCSD invited UNESCO to become the strategic partner of the "Climate x Campaign", and to join the Advisory Committee of the "Global Youth Climate Week" and work as the co-organizer. Prof. Shahbaz Khan has given the opening remark online for this year’s "Global Youth Climate Week" which was held from 31 Oct to 4 Nov.
Prosperity: Practical Education Base Action
- Establishing Practical Education Base:
Helping Hainan establish a low-carbon and sustainable development model to show the Chinese practice on how to transit to a more sustainable and flexible economic growth by paying attention to restoring tropical rainforests, reducing carbon footprint and promoting sustainable livelihood activities.
Cooperating with Hainan Institute of National Park (HINP), UNESCO Beijing jointly established the Practical Education Base at Nongken Middle School at Wuzhishan City, Hainan Province, to promote low-carbon sustainable development models by popularizing science education activities on issues related to carbon footprint reduction, ecological civilization construction, tropical rainforest restoration and biodiversity conservation. The Plaque of the Practical Education Base has been granted to the Nongken Middle School at Wuzhishan City during the Launching Ceremony of the project.
In addition, this project strives to promote capacity building in Hainan by deepening the localization of ecological civilization and sustainable development goals in Hainan, and build a sustainable local community through education, water resources, culture and environment to meet the sustainability challenges of the province and find innovative solutions.