On May 30, the Third Council Meeting of the BRIGC Governing Board was held in Beijing. With unanimous agreement, the Governing Board Members elected Zhao Yingmin, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and former Vice Minister of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE) as the President of BRIGC.

BRIGC Co-Chair and Governing Board Member Marco Lambertini, Vice Presidents Kate Hampton and Erik Solheim, congratulated Zhao Yingmin on his election as President. They expressed confidence in building the Green Silk Road and the future development of BRIGC, and articulated expectations for BRIGC to play a more important role in supporting developing countries in achieving green, low-carbon, and sustainable development.

Zhao Yingmin expressed his gratitude to all Governing Board Members and their organizations for the long-standing support to BRIGC’s endeavors and outlined his vision for the work in 2025. He stated that 2025 would be the second year for BRIGC to operate as an international organization and a critical year to enhance BRIGC’s internal capacity building and institutional development. BRIGC will reinforce efforts in building four major platforms for multilateral dialogue, international think tanks, capacity building, and information sharing to expand the outreach of influence and better support the high quality development of the Green Silk Road. First, BRIGC will continue to host the BRI Green Innovation Conference to further create a multilateral dialogue platform with international influence. Second, BRIGC will continue to advance building new cooperation platforms such as the Green Investment and Finance Partnership (GIFP) and the BRI Green and Low-carbon Expert Network (GLEN), to establish an international think tank platform for green and low-carbon development. Third, BRIGC will implement the Green Silk Road Envoy Program, and organize capacity building programs for Belt and Road partner countries, Chinese financial institutions and “going global”enterprises by leveraging advantages of the GBA Global Academy for Green Leadership and Innovation, to establish a capacity-building platform for boosting green development in developing countries. Fourth, BRIGC will utilize the BRI Environmental Big Data Platform to support Belt and Road partner countries in achieving a digital and green collaborative transformation and sustainable development. In addition, BRIGC will furhter strengthen its own institutional development.

Zhao emphasized that he will work together with the Vice Presidents and Memmbers of the Governing Board and all BRIGC members to build the Coalition into an international organization that promotes the green and low-carbon transformation and development of global South countries. BRIGC will become an important platform and window for advancing the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals and jointly building a clean and beautiful world, and contribute solutions and wisdom to the high quality Belt and Road cooperation.

The meeting was held via video conference. All members of the Governing Board attended the meeting either in person or via video. Other matters were also discussed during the meeting.