At first, Mrs. Beate Grzeski, Minister, Head of Economic Department of German Embassy made the opening speech. She pointed that energy safety, environment protection and climate change have become global challenges in the 21st century. The increasing energy demand, new regional economic cooperation and potential instability make energy safety a more and more important factor in making diplomatic policies. Germany has always prioritized energy safety, environment safety and climate change and has promulgated a series of regulations on denuclearization and renewable energy. China has also done its own bit. In the “12th Five-Year Plan”, the Chinese Government changed its focus from quantity-oriented growth to quality-oriented sustainable growth. The two countries will jointly facilitate the utilization of renewable energy and create the sustainable development in future. 

 

Then, professor Dirk Messner, Director of German Development Institute made the keynote speech: “Transformation towards a global low carbon economy: the role of China and Germany”. He talked about the reason why low-carbon Economy is needed in the whole world and we could realize the transformation mainly from three aspects: energy, urbanization and land use. According to him, people’s awareness of low-carbon economy is of more importance since it is already technically available to realize the transformation. Governments must make favorable policies, strengthen international cooperation, call on responsibility-oriented consumption style to pursue long-term reward of investments and realize global sustainable development with minimum costs. 

 

Professor Pan Jiahua, Director-General of the Institute for Urban and Environmental Studies of Chinese Academy of Social Science reaffirmed the feasibility of the transformation and the win-win situation from various perspectives. The conference concluded after the warmly discussion.