Kick-off Meeting of the Academic Divisions of CAS (CASAD) Consultation Project on Sustainable Development was held on October 21 in Beijing, China.

The meeting aimed to initiate CASAD Project on Sustainable Development, work out implementation plans, and discuss coordination among subprojects. Project PI CAST Vice President, CNC-FE President Academician Dahe Qin and CNC-FE Vice President Academician Guoxiong Wu co-presided the meeting. CNC-FE Advisor CAS Vice President Academician Jinghai Li, CNC-FE member Academician Jiachun Li, Deputy Director of CASAD Mr. Jingze Wang, Director General of Institute of Atmospheric Physics (IAP) Prof. Jiang Zhu were invited to attend the meeting. The meeting brought about 40 project members from different CAS institutes, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), Development Research Center of the State Council (DRC), Beijing Normal University, and representatives from Fudan Tyndall Centre, Fudan University and United Nations Development Programme (China) Energy and Environment.

Mr. Jingze Wang first outlined CASAD Consultation and Evaluation Committee resolution on launching the project. CNC-FE member Dr. Ailikun introduced in details the background and significance, goals, contents and expected output of the project. Five subproject leader Prof. Yonglong Lv, Prof. Rongping Mu, Prof. Xiaoxuan Li, Prof. Jiansheng Qu and Prof. Shengquan Ge reported respectively focus of each group, centering on international status on top design for sustainable development, science for policy, implementing co-design and co-production in China, co-delivery from research to social cognition and policy making, capacity building for transition to sustainable development. In the discussion section that followed, participants exchanged views on cross-subproject coordination and project management. It was concurred that the project should attach importance to 4 aspects: 1) systematic integration perspective: a 30-year scale was suggested; 2) open access to the public; 3) science for policy and decision making; 4)project output: a consultation report to be submitted to the State Council.

Academician Jinghai Li, newly-elected Vice President of ICSU pointed out in his remarks that Future Earth is an inspiring programme jointly initiated by ICSU (International Council for Science), ISSC (International Social Science Council) and others. Its implementation should vary from country to country. The founding of CNC-FE is a special contribution China has made to the international initiative. CASAD project should hold on to scientific approach and aim at putting forward scientific viewpoints in response to economy development and societal transfer to sustainability. CNC-FE Vice President Academician Guoxiong made concluding remarks highlighting follow-up plans for the project.

Entitled “Implementation of Future Earth in China and Promote Social Sustainable Development China (2014.07-2016.07)”, this project was lately approved by CASAD. Another project which CNC-FE has gained support from CAS was CAS International Cooperation Program: Co-design of Implementation Plan for Future Earth in China (2014.01-2016.12).