Beijing, 14 September 2020: The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) International Green Development Coalition (BRIGC) held the BRI Green Development Report and BRIGC Thematic Partnerships working meeting via video conference on 10 September 2020.
The Meeting was addressed by Mr Erik Solheim, Convener of the Advisory Committee of BRIGC and Advisor to the World Resources Institute; Mr Jeffrey Sachs, Director of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN); and Mr Li Yonghong, Deputy Director General of the Foreign Environmental Cooperation Center (FECO). More than 80 delegates participated in the meeting, including Mr Denis Nkala, UNOSSC Regional Coordinator for Asia-Pacific; Mr Zhang Jianyu, Vice President of the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF); Mr John Mimikakis, Vice President of the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF); and Mr. Zhu Xufeng, Associate Dean and Professor of the School of Public Policy & Management, Tsinghua University (TUSDG).
Erik Solheim, in his address, underlined the BRI’s role as one of the most important initiatives in today's world, and his hopes that the flagship report could capture and promote best practices in green development worldwide. For his part, Jeffrey Sachs pointed out that the Green BRI could help China enhance its leadership in environmental and social developments and promote advancement in clean, green and digital technologies globally. Mr Li Yonghong mentioned that the international community is expecting BRI to play a key role in driving a green global recovery, and that BRIGC would continue to fulfill its role as an international platform and pull in resources from all partners to further promote green development along the Belt and Road.
The BRIGC Secretariat and TUSDG team also shared the latest progress made by the BRIGC and on the flagship report.
Zhou Weidong, Director of WBCSD’s China office, delivered the briefing on behalf of the working group on green technology innovation and corporate social responsibility. Representatives of the thematic partnerships (on biodiversity, climate change, marine environment governance, green finance, green technology innovation, South-South cooperation, sustainable transportation, green cities, as well as environmental laws and standards) discussed issues related to key research areas and the cases on green development and proposed recommendations on the integration of related outputs of thematic partnerships in the report.
The BRI Green Development Report is a flagship project of BRIGC launched in June 2020 by the BRIGC Secretariat in collaboration with SDSN and TUSDG. The report, which integrates the research outputs of the thematic partnerships, aims to assess the achievements and challenges of BRI participating countries in green development and propose policy recommendations for the development of green BRI through analyzing mechanisms for cooperation and innovation in green development and BRI green development cases worldwide.
