Academic Conferences

To provide in-depth support for China's urgent domestic and international needs in addressing climate change in the new era, and to further enhance China's climate governance capacity and international influence, the Fifth Climate Change Assessment Report Data Platform Development Forum and Climate Dataset Development Forum was successfully held in Huzhou, Zhejiang, on the afternoon of July 28, 2025. The forum was jointly organized by the Administrative Center for China's Agenda 21, referred to hereafter as ACCA21, and Tsinghua University.

Project Launch Session

Zhang Xian, Director of the Climate Change Division of the Administrative Center for China's Agenda 21

Liu Congqiang, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences; Gao Xiang, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering; and Sun Laixiang, Fellow of the British Academy of Social Sciences, attended the forum and delivered guidance remarks. Zhang Xian, Director of the Climate Change Division of ACCA21, introduced the background of the data platform development for the Fifth National Climate Change Assessment Report on behalf of the project convening organization. He noted that current report assessment and accounting work still faces issues such as inconsistent data system development, uncoordinated model logic, and mismatched parameter scales. He emphasized the urgent need to build a unified and integrated national climate data platform to enable effective integration and sharing of data on technologies, emissions, costs, models, and related fields.

Guan Dabo, Vice Dean of the Institute for Carbon Neutrality and Chair Professor of Basic Sciences at Tsinghua University

Professor Meng Jing, Director of the Centre for Sustainable Science and Technology at University College London

Professor Guan Dabo of Tsinghua University and Professor Meng Jing of University College London, as the organizers responsible for data development, respectively gave detailed introductions on the construction of carbon emission databases, the development of technology assessment and cost platforms, and progress in developing technology-driven emission reduction models.

Guidance Remarks Session

Liu Congqiang, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Tianjin University

During the guidance remarks session, Academician Liu Congqiang offered constructive suggestions on the authority of climate data. He stressed the critical role of data in achieving carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals, recommended developing sound data management standards and life-cycle assessment methods, and called for authoritative data standards with international influence to effectively address the politicization tendency of international data platforms and strengthen China's voice in global climate governance.

Gao Xiang, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and President of Zhejiang University of Technology

Academician Gao Xiang analyzed the complexity of data platform development from the perspective of technology implementation. He suggested establishing a multi-party collaborative mechanism among government, enterprises, and research institutions, building a complete technical system from small industry models to integrated large models, and paying particular attention to the strategic layout of key energy bases in order to provide a solid data foundation for precise emission reduction pathway design.

Sun Laixiang, Fellow of the British Academy of Social Sciences and University of Maryland

Academician Sun Laixiang offered forward-looking suggestions from the perspective of international competitive strategy, emphasizing that sustained and stable funding is essential for data platform development. He suggested using specific technical areas such as methane emissions as entry points, advancing through demonstrations, and gradually extending the work to Belt and Road countries and major economies. He also noted that the data platform should balance technical complexity with user friendliness, actively apply advanced technologies such as machine learning, and build a globally oriented application model based on Chinese data.

Expert Presentations and Discussion Session

Researcher Zhu Qingshan, Deputy Director of the Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, second from right in the front row; Researcher Chen Weiqiang of the Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, third from left in the front row; and Professor Wang Yutao of Fudan University, second from left in the front row

Associate Professor Wang Xuhui of Peking University, second from left in the front row

The forum included an expert presentations and discussion session chaired by Professor Meng Jing of University College London. Researcher Zhu Qingshan from the Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, described low-carbon technology pathways and the data foundation for the steel industry, emphasizing the key role of industrial data in technology pathway assessment, cost-benefit analysis, and maturity evaluation. Researcher Chen Weiqiang from the Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, shared experience in integrating datasets across the entire industrial chain of strategic resources, pointing out the importance of critical metals in the low-carbon transition and emphasizing the need for systematic assessments from the perspectives of resources, ecology, and geopolitics. Professor Wang Yutao of Fudan University presented a framework for building an industrial land-use database and its applications in ecological environment simulation and carbon emission scenario analysis. Drawing on typical biomass industry cases such as papermaking, he introduced coupling mechanisms between industrial systems and ecosystems, as well as spatial assessment methods. Associate Professor Wang Xuhui of Peking University noted that research should move beyond the limitations of the IPCC framework and advance deeper studies under a more refined sectoral classification system.

Participating experts agreed that climate data platform development should coordinate full life-cycle planning, increase support for basic research, and promote continuous iteration and dynamic updates of the platform, so that data can play a practical role in supporting climate mitigation research and policymaking. The platform should continuously expand the scope of greenhouse gas accounting, include non-carbon dioxide gases, and build data platforms for low-carbon technologies and socioeconomic variables, thereby comprehensively strengthening its support for national strategies and global climate governance.