Experts gather in city to discuss a greener planet

Never before has the low-carbon lifestyle been brought into sharp focus like this summer as the spate of extreme weather events becomes a statistical quirk. This year's Pujiang Innovation Forum will bring a group of experts together for discussions about low carbon.

In its 15th year, the city's annual science gala will be held from today to Tuesday, with nearly 230 experts from about 30 countries and regions attending online and offline.

Under the theme "Low Carbon: A New Mission for Global Innovation," the forum aims to offer new approaches to global sustainable development.

It will focus on innovation-driven, low-carbon development, establish a sound economic and technological mechanism for green development and deepen global cooperation in areas of low-carbon technologies.

China has pledged to cap carbon emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060.

As an important scheme to meet its emission targets, China launched the national carbon emission trading market last year, the world's largest of its kind. Over one year, the market has seen its total trading volume reach 194 million tons.

The Netherlands, this year's Country of Honor, will share with China its innovative low-carbon solutions, and the two will form several partnerships.

The Netherlands has committed to reducing its carbon emissions to net zero by 2050 in the Dutch Climate Act. Substitutes on the government agenda include solar energy, onshore wind energy, offshore wind energy, biomass energy, geothermal heat and hydropower.

During the opening ceremony and plenary, Micky Adriaansens, Dutch minister of economic affairs and climate policy, and Dimitri de Vreeze, co-chief executive officer and chief operating officer of Royal DSM, will introduce the country's experiences promoting low-carbon development.

Other participating experts include Borge Brenda, president of the World Economic Forum; Boris Otto, director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Software and Systems Engineering; Guo Huadong, director of China's International Research Center of Big Data for Sustainable Development Goals; and Hu Wangming, general manager of China Baowu Steel Group Corp, the world's largest steel conglomerate.

They will hold in-depth discussions about the low-carbon economy, digital technologies and new energies to explore new approaches to a greener planet.

Notably, Baowu is exploring using hydrogen to power the metallurgical process of one of its green, low-carbon projects, which was created to help the company achieve a more than 30 percent reduction in carbon emissions by 2035.

Additionally, the Netherlands will hold two special seminars about water and energy. With 70 percent of its population living below sea level, the country has advanced water management systems like water purifying and flood prevention. During the seminar, "water museum," a new partnership between the Netherlands and China, will be unveiled.

This year's Province of Honor is Hainan.

Much like Shanghai, Hainan is a vivid example of China's high-level opening-up.

In 2020, China released a plan to build Hainan into a globally influential free trade port by the middle of this century. Since then, the once backwater island has been on the forefront of free trade development, with favorable policies like zero tariffs introduced.

As a popular tourist destination, the island also places a high premium on sustainable development and has big plans to develop new technologies, such as a pilot zone to develop international medical tourism-related businesses.

In many aspects, Hainan sees complementary advantages and cooperation potential with Shanghai, so deeper regional cooperation will be discussed during the forum.

Every year, the Young Elite Scientist Summit, or Yes Summit, is a major session of the forum.

Young scientists, technology company executives and innovation business entrepreneurs share their latest achievements and have the chance to talk with prominent scientists.

New to this year's forum will be the Female Scientist Summit, created to show women's prominent role in the global innovation community.

Participating speakers will talk about their achievements and challenges in the male-dominated field. They include 95-year-old Ye Shuhua, China's first female observatory director, Kumsal Bayazit, the first female CEO in Elsevier's long history, and Smriti Aryal, head of UN Women China.

During the summit, a new project aiming to inspire girls to devote themselves to science will be introduced.

Another highlight is Inno-Match Expo, a platform for regions and countries, start-ups and business tycoons, as well as universities and industrial parks to demonstrate their advantages and development potential to promote global technology transfers.

This year, there will also be an online exhibition. Visitors can tour the metaverse exhibition hall and interact with virtual customer-service staff to learn about every detail of the exhibition without leaving home.

Other hot topics like health care, brain science and regional cooperation will also be discussed at the forum.