杭州市科学技术协会

CAST UN Consultative Committee on Disaster Reduction held a parallel session of “Big Data in Support of Climate Actions and Disaster Reduction” at BRICS Forum on Big Data for Sustainable Development in a hybrid format of online and on-site with the main venue in Beijing on April 27, 2022.

For the first time, the forum convened a parallel session for BRICS countries to share innovative achievements and useful experiences under the theme of “big data and sustainable development goal”.

Jia Gensuo, member of the UN Committee on Disaster Reduction and senior researcher of the Institute of Atmospheric Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), and Sara Venturini, professor of the Group on Earth Observations (GEO), co-chaired the parallel session.

Professor Zhang Peng, member of the UN Committee on Disaster Reduction and deputy director of the National Satellite Meteorological Center (NSMC) of the China Meteorological Administration (CMA), senior researcher Thelma Krug, director of the Brazilian Panel on Climate Change, and professor Sergey Semenov, scientific director of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), doctor Virendra M. Tiwari, director of the National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI) of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research of India (CSIR), Ms. Navashni Govender, high commissioner of the South Africa Kruger National Park, and other experts made presentations respectively around topics of disaster reduction services based on satellite technologies, extreme climate and weather monitoring, development of assessment system and policy tools.

The parallel session delivered opinions that digital technologies represented by big data and cloud computing can provide support for the BRICS countries to take actions in response to increasing challenges of extreme climate and disaster risks.

The session appealed to take initiatives as follows:

--Strengthen the cooperation in the fields of satellite technologies and big data application, and share innovative achievements and experiences on early warning of natural disasters;

--Enhance awareness on climate change and reinforce joint research on disaster reduction to address the challenges of sustainable development;

--Encourage academic exchanges in the field of big data, and develop cooperative programs for young scientists to enhance their competence of research and application;

--Stay committed to cooperative capacity-building in the field of ecological education and environmental protection to hit the goals of UN’s climate actions and other sustainable development programs.

Guo Huadong, director of the CAST UN Consultative Committee on Disaster Reduction delivers a keynote speech at the BRICS Forum on Big Data for Sustainable Development.

Jia Gensuo, member of the UN Committee on Disaster Reduction

chairs the parallel session of “Big Data in Support of Climate Actions and Disaster Reduction”.

Zhang Peng, member of the UN Committee on Disaster Reduction delivers speeches at the parallel session.

BRICS Forum on Big Data for Sustainable Development was held to implement the important initiative put forward by President Xi Jinping at the 13th leaders' meeting of the BRICS countries.

The forum aimed to promote innovative sci-tech cooperation of the BRICS countries to ensure collective sustainable development with big data as the driving force.

The forum was initiated by the CAS, and co-sponsored by the Academy of Sciences of South Africa, Brazilian Academy of Sciences, Russian Academy of Sciences, and Indian National Science Academy, with the support of the China Association for Science and Technology (CAST), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC).

The forum was organized by the International Research Center of Big Data for Sustainable Development Goals and the Aerospace Information Research Institute of the CAS, and co-organized by CAST UN Consultative Committee on Disaster Reduction.