Environmental Scientific Socielty of Sichuan Province (ESSSP) / Franco-Chinese Association for Urban Sustainable Development (AFCDUD)

 

Ms. Qing XU, ESSSP, Chengdu, China

Dr. Lin WU, AFCDUD, Paris, France

 

      

 

December 2017

  A program of                                                                                             supported by

Brief description of exchange purpose/projects

The purpose of the exchange is to share the expertises between AFCDUD and ESSSP, strengthen the link between the two organisations, and foster further collaboration and exchanges on city’s role in climate change. We focus on the technique and the application in green and resilent city, and specifically aim at promoting projects on technological innovation in waste management that can help reducing the emissions of greenhouse gases during the treatment processes and on the monitoring CO2 emissions from Chinese cities, which is a crucial step for any credible mitigations or adaptions in green and resilent city.



In Europe

 

Host Organization: Franco-Chinese Association for Urban Sustainable Development (AFCDUD), Paris, France

Twinning fellow: Qing XU from Environmental Scientific Society of Sichuan Province (ESSSP)

Dates of exchange in Europe: 2017.05.29 – 2017.07.13

 

Introduction (Objectives, expectations)

The objectives for my visit in Europe are:

1) Experience-Sharing on low carbon and sustainable development in cities and urban-rural areas;

2) strengthen the EU-China civil society dialogue on issues related to sustainable development and low carbon development.

 

I have worked in the area of resilient cities for more than two years and has built up a strong relationship with city officials and other local stakeholders in Sichuan Province. My role in ESSSP is to raise the awareness within local communities to policy advocacy as well as to provide technical assistance to government agencies. In particular, she coordinates the development of the resilience strategy, supports member units of ESSSP with implementation of resilience policies, and leads scientific research team on studies of urban environmental problems.

This exchange opportunity provided me a chance to earn profounded point-views on how European cities transform themselves to resilient cities. Inspired by this twining project and combining with my knowledge and experiences of cities in the west of China, I have a clearer strategy to the transformation of cities in China after this trip.

 

Challenges (Cultural contrasts)

The most impressive cultural contrast is the way how decision is made and executed. NGOs in Europe is mostly consisted by individuals and professionals, while NGOs as ESSSP is more relied on the connection to the governments. As a result, European NGOs are more open-minded, Chinese NGOs are more effective when taking actions after the decision is made.

Activities

Main activities have been arranged as three main compounds: exchanging activities between ESSSP and AFCDUD; Workshops and conferences; visits and interviews with other international organizations.

 

Exchange between ESSSP and AFCDUD:

1) Work closely with AFCDUD preparing for the “Smart City, Green Life” Sino-Europe Forum

2) Participant in Seminar and meeting organized by AFCDUD

Workshops and conference:

1) Capacity Building and Reflection Workshop, Hamburg, 16-19 June 2017

2) Civil20 Summit 2017, 18 June 2017

3) World Reconstruction Forum and European Development Day, 6-8 June 2017

4) Paris Climate Club, 27 June 2017

 

Visit and interviews with other international organizations:

1) Visit United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Bonn, Germany

2) Visit United Nations Environment Program - Wuppertal Institute Collaborating Centre on Sustainable Consumption and Production (CSCP), Wuppertal, Germany

3) Visit Climate Action Network Europe (CAN Europe), Brussels, Belgium

4) Visit International Energy Agency (IEA), Paris, France

5) Visit World Future Council, Hamburg, Germany

 

Outcome and Impact

We list the major results from the twinning program as below:

1) the presentation at Civil20 Summit 2017 under the topic – Fostering sustainable urban development alongside Belt and Road Initiative countries

2) the “Smart City, Green Life” Sino-Europe Forum held in Paris, 25-26 September 2017

3) Established a EU-China network on the actions to build resilience to environment and climate change

4) a concrete strategical plan of the cooperation between ESSSP and AFCDUD

 

Future Plans and Sustainability of the Partnership

Future plans Future plans resulting from this twinning:

1) Joint innovative popularization of environmental issues to public and citizen (e.g. between ESSSP and AFCDUD)

2) Follow up of Sino-Europe Forum, e.g. the promotion of the Green City Alliance (between AFCDUD, ESSSP and Tongji Venture Valley)

With Dr. Kaisheng Liu, the president of AFCDUD, at Civil20 Summit 2017

 

With representatives from Japan, Nepal, India and Sri Lanka in Europe Development days

  

Visit UNFCCC in Bonn



In China

 

Host Organization: Environmental Scientific Society of Sichuan Province (ESSSP), Chengdu, China

Twinning fellow: Dr. Lin WU, from Franco-Chinese Association for Urban Sustainable Development (AFCDUD)

Dates of exchange in Europe: 2017.05.29 – 2017.07.13

 

Introduction (Objectives, expectations)

The objectives for the visit of Dr. Lin WU in China are:

1. Academic exchanges on green city theory and practices,
2. Initiatives on city’s role in climate finance, carbon market and other possible applications in industry or innovative startups
3. Potential joint project for the monitoring of CO2 emissions for Chinese cities such as Chengdu
4. Link between ESSSP and AFCDUD for future exchanges and collaborations

 

Dr. Lin WU is highly motivated for this exchange, expecting that it could provide chances to apply his expertise previously developed in France to problems in China, particularly the monitoring system of carbon emissions of large cities, a research word led by Dr. Lin WU published in Atmospheric Chemistry Physics that provides, for the first time, the estimation of carbon emissions for distinct sectors of activities in a megacity (Paris), such as domestic heating, road traffic, and combustion for energy production and industrial processes. Dr. Lin WU is with the Environment department in AFCDUD, he also expects for sharing the experiences from his nearly ten years of work in air quality problems as well as expertise from other members in AFCDUD as a contribution to solve the environmental problems that are currently public concerns in China.

 

Challenges (Cultural contrasts)

Dr. Lin WU was born in China, had his education first in China (Bachelor in 1998, Master in 2001) then in France (Ph.D in 2005). He has worked as a researcher in France for more than 10 years after obtaining his Ph.D, but never had the chance to work in China until this exchange of one and a half months’ visit supported by the Twinning program. Hence, this exchange also reveals some cultural contrasts for Dr. Lin WU.

 

Here is a short list of Sino-French cultural contrasts found in NGOs, public institutes, and industry in a functional but less personal viewpoint:

 

1) NGO

In general NGOs connects individuals, professionals and governments, with different weights. French NGOs are more connected with individuals and professionals, whereas Chinese NGOs are more connected with professionals and governments. As a result, the French NGOs are more open (e.g. to citizens), where Chinese NGOs are more executive (e.g. promoting concepts and practices that protect environment, putting forward standard for professionals)

2) Public institutes:

The way how research activity goes is different between Chinese and French institutes. The extent to which the research heads is involved in direct research activities is more significant for French institutes. The Chinese research heads seem to have more managing tasks. The Chinese research associates (e.g. Ph.D. students and junior researchers) seem to have less discussion with their directors than what undergoes in French institutes.

3) Industry:

In French companies and startups, it seems that activities are better organized, with more analysis before acting. Chinese companies and startups are more dynamic, and in general they go faster and can take heavier work load.

 

Figure 1 Cultural contrasts between France and China in NGOs, public institutes, and industry

 

The biggest hurdle (cultural contrast also) is the way how decision is made and executed. This hurdle would remain so for long, but as young generations go global, this might change eventually.

 

Activities

The original agenda was modified because of the preparation of the “Smart City, Green Life” Sino-Europe Forum (held in Paris 25-26 Sep.) and the one week vocation of the Chinese National Day (01-08 Oct.). The mission of Dr. Lin WU has been re-arranged into three phases: the Beijing visit before Sanya meeting, Sanya meeting, and the dense Chendu visit after the National Day vocation. We list our major activities in three catalogues, namely academic exchanges, namely in academic exchanges, NGO exchanges and industrial exchanges.

 

Academic exchanges during the Beijing visit

• Several visits in Institute of Atmospheric Physics (IAP), the State Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Boundary Layer Physics and Atmospheric Chemistry (LAPC)

• Visit in Beijing Transport Institute

• Meeting with experts from Energy Research Institute National Development And Reform Commission

 

Exchanges between AFCDUD and ESSSP during the Chengdu visit

• Visit in Chengdu organized by ESSSP

• Seminar and meeting organized by ESSSP

 

Industrial exchanges during the Chengdu visit

• Visit in Yinguang Inc., an IT company specialized in applications of cloud computing, big data and artificial intelligence in food and restaurant industry

• Visit of the Tongji Venture Valley, an incubator of targeted startups specialized in virtual reality, robotics, autonomous driving, and many other domains.

 

Outcome and Impact

We list the major results from our three catalogues of exchanges:

 

Academic exchanges

• Invited in several workshops and the Kick-off meeting of National Key Project JINGJINJI (High spatiotemporal resolution CO2 monitoring of city clusters from Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei province). The kick-off meeting was presided over by Mr. Guanhua XU, the ex-minister of the Ministry of Science and Technology of China

• Successful joint applications with LAPC researchers on an infosystem project INFO-CAS for solving problems in high-performance computing, data exchanging, analysis methods in air pollution problems supported by Chinese Academy of Sciences

• Several meetings and seminars in IAP on the subjects of data assimilation and forecast in air quality as well as atmospheric inversion of city CO2 emissions

Exchanges between AFCDUD and ESSSP

• Seminar in ESSSP on “Platform and applications for air pollution mitigations and low-carbon city development” with 40+ participants from a number of institutes and universities in Chengdu, such as Policy Research Institute for Environment and Economy，Atmospheric Environment Institute for Environment and Economy from Sichuan Academy of Envirnomental Sciences, Chengdu University of Information Technology, and Chengdu University of Technology.

• Meeting with Secretary of ESSSP – Mr. Yingming HU – for comprehensive discussions on the demands from both organizations, which leads to agreements on future work models between AFCDUD and ESSSP, such as joint efforts on building platform of researchers, professionals, entrepreneurs, information and news sharing for solving environmental problems in air and water pollution, joint projects on promoting green products and standards, and joint innovations on ways to promote awareness building of environmental issues, and educations and popularization of environmental knowledge.

 

Industrial exchanges

• Meeting in Yinguang Inc., with its CEO and R&D center, especially with its CTO and co-founder – Mr. Bowen LI, to develop an architecture of the information system for low-carbon cities and air pollution mitigations, in which data center, computing infrastructure and access to users (institutes or individuals) are supported

• Meeting in Tonji Venture Valley Inc., especially with its vice-president – Mr. Guangyu LIU – for comprehensive discussions on future collaborations between both sides, such as the contributions on building the platform for sharing environmental concepts and applications from France and China, following-up of the Sino-Europe Forum, and possible investments in big data environment in France and China.

In summary, during this twining program, we have established a Sino-French network that consists of researchers, entrepreneurs, venture capitals and NGOs surrounding the actions in environment and climate change with keywords being low-carbon city, air pollution, and platform.

 

Future Plans and Sustainability of the Partnership

Future plans Future plans resulting from this twining:

• Common projects on monitoring city CO2 (i.e. the National Key Project JINGJINJI between AFCDUD and IAP) emissions and air pollution (i.e. the infosystem project INFO-CAS between AFCDUD and LAPC)

• Development of information platform for low-carbon and clean city supported by the established Sino-French network (among others, with AFCDUD, ESSSP, Yinguang, Tongji Venture Valley and IAP)

• Joint innovative popularization of environmental issues to public and citizen (e.g. concept of fashion, between ESSSP and AFCDUD)

• Follow up of Sino-Europe Forum, e.g. the promotion of the Green City Alliance (between AFCDUD, ESSSP and Tongji Venture Valley)

Photo 1 Seminar in ESSSP given by Dr. Lin WU titled “Platform and applications for air pollution mitigations and low-carbon city development”