At the ministerial meeting of the Group of Friends of the Global Development Initiative (GDI) held during the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly, the Chinese government released the "Big Earth Data in Support of the Sustainable Development Goals (2022)" (hereinafter referred to as "the Report"). At the session, the "Survey on the Status of Education and Communication of Climate Change in China", jointly completed by Prof. Chen Xi's group, together with researcher Zhang Tianyi from the Institute of Atmospheric Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Macau scholars and teachers and students from Beijing Normal University, was selected as a case study of the Report. The survey is the first outcome of the Report's 42 typical case studies on education for sustainable development in China and is the first in China to support the construction of UN Sustainable Development Goal 13 (climate action) from the perspective of education and communication of climate change.

The report on the education and communication of climate change in China focused on UN Sustainable Development Goal 13.3.1 and conducted a questionnaire survey on the education and communication of climate action in China (including the Macau region) in 2022. The survey covered teachers and students in grades 7-9 in 63 cities in China and illustrated the state of communication of climate action and sustainability policies and practices in basic education in China. The survey not only provides a reference standard for the quantitative indicators of the education and communication of sustainable development that have been lacking in China, but also provides high quality data on the communication of climate action in the field of basic education in China. The results of the study are a successful example of the integration of communication, education, and atmospheric science, and provide key data to support China's achievement of the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).

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Contents of the report “Big Earth Data in Support of the Sustainable Development Goals (2022)”

The group will continue to promote interdisciplinary research collaboration with the Institute of Atmospheric Physics in the area of climate change education and communication at the United Nations, and continue to conduct climate change-related sustainable development research under the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and China's dual carbon "30-60" targets.

The " Big Earth Data in Support of the Sustainable Development Goals (2022)" was written by the International Research Centre for Big Data for Sustainable Development and the pilot project of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, “Big Data for Earth Science Project”, with the participation of more than 170 researchers from over 40 research institutes and universities. Focusing on 25 specific targets of seven SDGs, including climate action, zero hunger, sustainable cities and communities and so on, and the intersection and integration of multiple SDG indicators, the report carries out a series of indicator monitoring and assessment demonstration studies, forms 42 typical cases, contributes 31 sets of data products, 21 methodological models and 33 decision support items, and demonstrates the results of SDG indicator monitoring and assessment at four scales: global, regional, national and typical locations.

Translator: Xu Yifan

Proofreading: Martin Wittenberg