Chinese youth launch projects tackling climate change with innovation

BEIJING, Aug. 31 (Xinhua) -- A group of Chinese youth has actively participated in a competition on designing innovative solutions for climate change issues, with eight winning projects setting sail for incubation.

Some 65 participants from 29 teams were selected to take part in the 4th annual national dialogue co-hosted by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the China Soong Ching Ling Science and Culture Center for Young People and Citi China.

With the theme of climate action this year, the dialogue, held online from Aug. 23 to 27, released the list of winners Monday, which includes GCMD, a project dedicated to the realization of automated and intelligent classification of domestic waste and Carbonbase, a solution provider for carbon measurement and carbon neutrality.

"In combating climate change, one of the defining challenges of the twenty-first century, the actions of youth will be critical," said Devanand Ramiah, resident representative a.i. of the UNDP in China.

"We want young people to work together to put forward green, innovative, inclusive and sustainable solutions to address climate issues with technological and digital skills," said Zhang Ruige, deputy director-general of the China Soong Ching Ling Science and Culture Center for Young People.

The winners were awarded a total of 300,000 yuan (about 46,400 U.S. dollars) innovation grants supported by OPPO and three months of online incubation of their projects.

They will also have the opportunities to represent China and showcase their projects along with youth from 24 other countries and territories in the Asia-Pacific region.