China and Germany both made significant contributions to advance the 2030 Agenda and the agreement on the seventeen SDGs. The SDGs developed into an important reference framework for international cooperation and research collaborations. Both China and Germany make considerable efforts to reducing coal consumption, promoting renewable energies, and addressing challenges of a just sustainability transition.

Academics as well as practitioners provided insights into research and international cooperation projects related to various SDGs, including energy transition, management of green transition, urbanisation and climate policies. 

The workshop took place on March 17 and 18 at Peking University- College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering (PKU CESE) and attended by around 70 academics and practitioners including representatives of various think tanks and other nonprofits as well as students of Peking University. It was supported by PKU CESE and the Centre for International Cooperation of FU Berlin.

 

The first day was dedicated to presentations from researchers of different departments of Peking University and Freie Universität (FU) Berlin and from representatives and advisors of the National Centre for Climate Change Strategy Research as well as GIZ (German International Cooperation Agency), see attached Agenda. The workshop was conducted in a participatory way providing space for comments and questions from the audience. Peking University invited us to a reception dinner on the evening of the first day and our exchanges continued in an informal way over our Beijing duck dinner experience.

 

On the second day we explored future exchange and research cooperation opportunities between the two Universities, think tanks and international cooperation agencies. Three Schools/Colleges of Peking University presented their research and teaching portfolios: School of Government, School of International Studies and College of Environmental Sciences. 

 

The insights of the workshop were further discussed during the annual Spring Campus Conference at FU Berlin (April 9-12, 2018), in particular in the workshop 1 on Implementing the Agenda 2030 (Sustainable Development Goals) and Climate Policies, chaired by Sabrina Habich (FUB), Berthold Kuhn (FUB), and Dai Hancheng (PKU).