Review of the Chinese Delegation of Circular Economy to Finland for the World Circular Economy Forum

2023-06-19

WCEF 2023

The World Circular Economy Forum 2023 (WCEF 2023) was held in Helsinki, Finland, from May 30 to June 2, 2023. The Forum was jointly organized by the Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra and the Nordic Innovation, and was attended by nearly 2,000 representatives from governments, financial institutions, business sectors, innovation and research, and international organizations from around the world. More than 20 plenary sessions and parallel sessions were held concurrently with the Forum, highlighting the role of business, finance and youth in achieving circular economy transition and sustainable development. The sessions covered a variety of topics, such as mining, plastics, electronics, textiles, focusing on circular economy strategies and action plans, green finance, sustainable supply chain, talent training and education etc. The Forum focused on sharing circular economy solutions that help reduce the durden on nature and protect biodiversity, the potential of innovation business models, as well as the challenges faced in the circular economy and strategies to address them.

Chinese Delegation of Circular Economy attended the forum

Invited by the Finnish government, the Chinese Delegation of Circular Economy participated in this Forum. Mr. ZHAO Penggao, Deputy Director-General of Department of Resource Conservation and Environmental Protection, NDRC of the People’s Republic of China, Mr. ZHU Liyang, President of China Association of Circular Economy (CACE), Mr. GUAN Shixuan, Deputy Secretary of CACE and Ms. MA Jinjin, Director of Department of International Cooperation, CACE, and Dr. CAO Yuheng, Institute for Circular Economy of Tsinghua University participated.

During the Forum, the Chinese Delegation had a dialogue with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the European Commission Directorate-General for Environment, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment of Finland, the Ministry of Environment of Finland and Finnish forest industry conglomerate United Paper Mills (UPM), and other government departments, international organizations and enterprises.

The Chinese delegation exchanged views with UNEP

The Chinese delegation exchanged views with the European Commission Directorate-General for Environment

The Chinese delegation held discussions with head of relevant departments of the Finnish Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment and the Finnish Ministry of Environment

The Chinese delegation and UPM

In the next step, in order to further implement the MOU on Sino-European circular economy cooperation, deepen bilateral and multilateral cooperation on international circular economy, and continuously enhance the international influence of China's circular economy, CACE will continue to play the role as a bridge between government and enterprises, and provide important support to consolidate bilateral and multilateral cooperation on international circular economy.