“Climate First” Eurasian Youth Forum

Tsinghua University Belt and Road Initiative Institute (Chinese: 清华大学一带一路研究院), Tsinghua University Student Association of Belt and Road Initiative (Chinese: 清华大学一带一路学生协会) and MGIMO Economic Club “OEconomicus”, Center for Sustainable Development (MCUR) and International Institute of Energy Policy and Diplomacy (IIEPD) on May 25th 2023 hold “Climate First” Eurasian Youth Forum.

The “Climate First” Eurasian Youth Forum is the initiative to create a long-term platform for technology and knowledge exchange in Energy transition policy and technologies between Chinese and Russian main stakeholders – educational institutions, research centers and in particular academics, practitioners, students.

Lu Yang — Research Fellow, Institute of Belt and Road Initiative, Ph.D. in Political Science in her opening greetings to the Conference noted: “Climate change is thought to be one of the most acute risks for sustainable development of humanity in next decades, as people living in vulnerable and susceptible to physical climate change risks already suffer from severe weather extremes and are made to survive with its consequences”.

In the 21st century, the global community is facing a climate crisis. Climate change is one of the most important issues that influences the policy arrangement all over the world. China, being the biggest carbon emitter, became a key participant in climate-related policy development.

Green revolution or low-carbon development is already an irreversible path in which the world is developing, and it is indispensable part of sustainable development. Today the world is experiencing three global revolutions in gas: US shale revolution, global LNG revolution and global Green Revolution. Any revolution has “both sides of the coin”. From one side, it disrupts business-as-usual mode of action, putting threats to further development in the traditional manner. From the other side, any revolution brings new opportunities for development, but accompanied with uncertainties and risks. Being one of the main exporters of fossil fuels, Russia is one of the main actors in taking a pro-active stance towards the low-carbon development.

Climate change is a long-term process, that involves the participation of all stakeholders, actors, institutions to participate in and make contribution. Thus, a pro-active participation of student communities is vital for effective climate change mitigation globally.

Among the speakers at the First Eurasian Youth Forum participants welcome: Prof. Sergey K. Vasiliev, Deputy director IIEPD; Prof. Igor Y. Urgens, Director of MCUR; Zongxu XIE, President of the Student Association of Belt and Road Initiative (SABRI), Global Youth Ambassador of the Global Alliances of Universities on Climate (GAUC); Sunny Lee, Deloitte & Touché Taiwan digital operations consultant, Asia Ambassador of Circulab in France; Manthan Shah, Schwarzman Scholar at Tsinghua University; Raikova Polina, bachelor 4 year, course "Enviromental management" in MGIMO.

Among the topics covered during the discussion: sustainable development of arctic hydrocarbon resources, Russian Green agenda on the way to Dubai COP; impact of compound extreme events (CEs) on terrestrial ecosystems and responding to CEs: nature-based solutions; calculation of product carbon footprint and cases of China; decarbonization of heavy industries in Shandong province in China; ways how carbon regulation can promote decarbonization in the energy sector: evidence from Russia; smart city: energy-efficient pulse driven intelligent streetlight.

Young initiatives and volunteers movement were presented in a special report by Polygalova Angelina "Steps to reduce the carbon footprint of youth public events: case of the "Ecosystem" Forum in Kamchatka region".

Participants congratulated Kamila Makhmutova, a bachelor’s degree graduate from IIEPD (MGIMO) and a Master degree student majoring in Public Policy for SDGs at the School of Public Policy and Management at Tsinghua University, with the idea to spring up this youth forum and agreed to put an efforts to make it a regular event in the cooperation between Tsinghua University and MGIMO.

The agenda of the cooperation was noted in the following ways:
1) Exchange of scientific research in the field of the climate crisis, energy transition policy, decarbonization, energy efficiency;
2) Creation of an effective channel for transferring the best ESG practices between the Russian and Chinese student and academic community;
3) Creation of young leaders of climate diplomacy and policy;
4) Development of student dialogue on climate change mitigation through energy policy in Eurasia.

In her closing remarks one of the moderators —Prof. Capitolina Tourbina, MCUR, pointed out high level of the reports and presentations delivered, open dialog between participants and expressed great hope on the continuation of more close contacts in research and educational matters between two universities.

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