Beijing (People’s Daily) - The Paulson Institute, in partnership with Tsinghua University, on Thursday announced the winners of the 2022 Paulson Prize for Sustainability.
This undated file photo shows waterfowls at the Shajiabang national wetland park in Changshu, east China's Jiangsu Province. (Photo: Xinhua)
The Paulson Prize established two categories: Nature Stewardship and Green Innovation. The Nature Stewardship category recognizes innovative and scalable projects that preserve and protect the natural environment. The Green Innovation category promotes climate and environmental solutions.
China’s pilot energy big data center to support carbon neutrality strategy in East China’s Zhejiang Province by the State Grid Zhejiang provincial electric power company was awarded the Green Innovation Award. The project is China's first provincial-level energy big data center that breaks through data barriers and provides a solution for precise carbon reduction.
"The winning project offers a systemic solution that provides critical and timely energy and carbon emissions data to empower decarbonization,” Tracy Wolstencroft, co-chair of the jury, senior advisor to the TPG Rise Climate, and former president and CEO of the National Geographic Society said. “We are impressed by the scale and replicability of the solution, as well as the governance structure to engage municipal and provincial policy-makers, business leaders, and financial institutions. Building this value-added data service on top of the energy delivery business is a powerful combination that will generate economy-wide impact.”
The Nature Stewardship Award of this year goes to the innovative model of urban development and wetland conservation by Changshu Wetland Conservation and Management Station. The project has achieved a harmonious human-wetland relationship and prosperity between wetland conservation and urban development.
"With nature-based solutions and multiparty participation, the Changshu project provides a Chinese paradigm of wetland conservation in developed areas and an example of creating and managing an international wetland city," said Professor Keping Ma, co-chair of the jury and deputy director of the Biodiversity Committee of the Chinese Academy of Science.
The Paulson Institute is a non-partisan, independent “think and do tank” dedicated to fostering a US-China relationship that serves to maintain global order in a rapidly evolving world. Founded in 2011 by former US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, the Institute is based in Chicago with offices in Washington and Beijing.