The 2025 Global Conference on Environment and Sustainable Development kicked off on June 8 at the Fangting Water Courtyard, an exhibition and convention center in the Water Town Living Room in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) Integration Demonstration Zone. Over 400 representatives from 36 countries and regions gathered together and had discussions on how to enhance ecological sustainability and advance green development.
The Fangting Water Courtyard is a symbolic functional place located in the center of the Water Town Living Room, the core area of the YRD Integration Demonstration Zone. The 2025 Global Conference on Environment and Sustainable Development was jointly held by the United Nations Environment Programme, Tongji University, and the executive committee of the YRD Integration Demonstration Zone, which is the first world-class event hosted by the Fangting Water Courtyard after its completion.
Sustainable development is the “golden key” to solving global environmental and development problems. At the conference, the attendees exchanged insights and ideas in such areas as pollution prevention and control, resources conservation, carbon emission reduction and ecosystem protection, proposing ways to deal with challenges brought by the global climate crisis, the sharp decline in biodiversity, the green transformation, etc.
Scholars from Australia and Ethiopia made speeches on building ecology with net-zero emissions and financing for green power production. And in his speech, Professor Duan Jin from Southeast University, who is also an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, analyzed the innovative practices in cross-provincial territorial space planning by taking the Water Town Living Room project as an example.
The event hosted four parallel forums which were held respectively at the four themed exhibition halls of Fangting Water Courtyard, namely Anhui Pavilion, Jiangsu Pavilion, Shanghai Pavilion and Zhejiang Pavilion. Each forum featured multiple keynote speeches and roundtable dialogues, where domestic and foreign experts and scholars engaged in in-depth exchanges and discussions on sustainable energy, urban renewal, environment and resources utilization, and green finance.
