On 6-7 February, the SPS on Promoting Digitization and Green Technologies for Sustainable Development held a hybrid workshop in Geneva. The workshop was organized by the World Economic Forum (WEF), the German Environment Agency (UBA), the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), and the Nankai University.

The SPS team’s international and Chinese experts, representing a range of sectors and industries, participated in two days of in-depth discussions to guide the report writing process and policy recommendations. They shared prior research insights, collected feedback, and identified gaps in the current drafts to address.

The participants discussed narrowing down the study’s focus to the specific sustainability challenge of climate change, including climate mitigation and adaptation. Circular use of natural resources was identified as a key issue linking the twin green and digital transformations. The core aim of the research project was articulated as exploring how digital transformation can support the decoupling of economic growth from natural resources and capabilities.

Having established the broad themes, the SPS team made deep dives into the topics of greening IT, green cities, and climate adaptation. Concrete examples from the Chinese public and private sector perspectives were highlighted, including the utilization of digital tools for resource efficiency and for creating circular processes within the economy.

Moving forward, the team underlined the importance of identifying research synergies with other SPS for amplifying the impact of CCICED’s research in China and on global processes.