On December 16, 2021, the BRI Green Innovation Conference (2021) was held in Shenzhen. The BRI International Green Development Coalition (BRIGC) released its BRI Green Development Outlook Interim Report (Abstract) at the Conference. Mr. Zhang Jianyu, International Coordinator of the BRIGC Advisory Committee and Executive President of BRI Green Development Institute, and Mr. Zhu Xufeng, Executive Associate Dean and Professor of the School of Public Policy & Management of Tsinghua University, introduced the report content and research outcomes.
With the studies launched in June 2020, the BRI Green Development Outlook (hereinafter referred to as the Outlook) is a flagship report jointly supported by BRIGC, UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), Institute for Sustainable Development Goals of Tsinghua University (TUSDG), Energy Foundation China, Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), and relevant lead partners from BRIGC thematic partnerships. The Outlook will be regularly updated and released. The research outcomes and policy recommendations will provide references and directions for decision making on aligning and supporting green development needs in BRI participating countries and deepening BRI international cooperation on ecology and environment.
Under the theme of BRI green development, the Outlook is a comprehensive report that focuses on the interaction and integration of environment and development and builds up a BRI Green Evaluation System to assess the green development potential of BRI participating countries. Focusing on the relevant green development indicators and participating countries, the Outlook is systematic, science-based, international and forward-looking. It assesses the green development status of BRI participating countries and at the same time looks into the future of green Silk Road development, with the purpose to identify directions and the blueprint for BRI green development.
The report covers the following aspects: systematically review and summarize the progress and achievements of the Green Silk Road in the past eight years since the BRI was proposed; build the BRI Green Development Index and Evaluation Systems to assess the status quo and potential of green development in participating countries; analyze the contribution of the Green Silk Road to the sustainable development of BRI participating countries; as well as identify the opportunities, challenges, key focus areas and propose cooperation recommendations for BRI green development.
Key areas of Green Silk Road development are initially identified in the report, including biodiversity conservation, climate change response, green energy and energy efficiency, green finance development, green marine development, and sustainable transportation. The report will make an in-depth analysis of the above areas and identify future opportunities and challenges. An in-depth analysis of the above areas will be included in the report helping to identify the future opportunities and challenges.
The full version of the BRI Green Development Outlook will be released by 2022. The next step is to improve the index system, evaluation methods and database to establish a more comprehensive and balanced BRI green development evaluation methodology. Planned improvements also include: focusing on key countries and areas, applying integrated research methods of quantitative and qualitative analysis, data analysis, scenario analysis and case study, and incorporating factors such as economic and trade cooperation, project development, and regional distribution. Built on these improvements, a number of typical countries will be selected from the existing ones for highly-focused analysis. Policy and action recommendations on green Silk Road will be further refined to echo the identified key areas, opportunities and challenges.
