On September 16, 2021, the APEC Cooperative Network of Sustainable Cities Workshop was successfully held in Tianjin. This meeting was hosted by the APEC Sustainable Energy Center, in cooperation with the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) and supported by the APEC Cooperative Network of Sustainable Cities. The theme of the seminar was "Defining the visions and targets of cities’ carbon emission reduction: The roles of Multi-Stakeholder Dialogues and urban data". It is one of the sub forums of the 7th Asia Pacific High-Level Forum on energy sustainable development, which is held as online conference.

Participants in the seminar were representatives of seven economies from China, Hong Kong China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, India, and Spain, as well as representatives from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), the Copenhagen Energy Efficiency Center, nearly 40 experts and scholars from international organizations such as ICLEI Local Governments for Sustainability and EPIC-N. The workshop was moderated by Wang, Meng, director of Rocky Mountain Research Institute; Vy Ek Chin, Chairman of the APEC EGEE&C Group, delivered an opening speech. He fully affirmed the importance of APSEC's research work on sustainable cities in recent years and emphasized that cities are important places for carbon emission reduction, and the statistics and analysis of urban data are indispensable. He hoped that APSEC will continue to strengthen cooperation with APEC economies, with EWG's expert groups and task forces, as well as relevant international institutions, and continue to make positive contributions to the sustainable development of cities in the APEC region.

In the first half of the seminar, seven experts defined the vision and objectives of carbon emission reduction from multiple perspectives of urban development. Firstly, Steivan Defilla, President Assistant of APSEC, put forward the concept of building a data-driven carbon neutral and disaster resistant cities, emphasized the importance of urban data in urban development, and introduced the framework and principle of the newly created Urban SDG Tracker database. Subsequently, Chen Yong, Program Officer of Sustainable Urban Energy at IRENA, expounded the importance of renewable power targets for cities. Wang Aiguo, technical director of TDCO, introduced the sustainable transportation planning of the Wuxi Zhongrui ecological city demonstration area project. Chen Zhuolun, Senior Advisor of Copenhagen Centre for Energy Efficiency, spoke about energy efficiency targets for cities and pointed out the important role of regional energy systems in comprehensive utilization of renewable energy and energy efficiency improvement. After that, Ping Yean Cheah, Senior Strategy Officer of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, showed the role of International Financial Institutions in formulating urban sustainable development plans and objectives. Dhiraj Ajay Suri, Senior Consultant of the National Institute of Urban Affairs of India, analyzed the importance of poor people's participation in the formulation of urban planning objectives. Finally, Gao Xiaotong, researcher of the Joint Operation Center of the APEC Cooperative Network of Sustainable Cities, analyzed the energy consumption of civil buildings in Qingdao, predicted the peak carbon emission of Qingdao through leap model, and put forward its development roadmap by multi scenario analysis.

The theme of the second half was " Defining the visions and targets of cities’ carbon emission reduction: the role of urban data in setting local targets". Firstly, Yan Zhexing, a researcher of APSEC, introduced the APEC urban sustainable development data platform and energy information system, and shared the large-scale innovation path of renewable energy, urban low-carbon energy system and energy efficiency improvement path. Subsequently, Cesar Carreno, Climate Data Director of ICLEI Local Governments for Sustainability, shared the role of CDP-ICLEI Green Climate City platform in supporting urban goal setting. After that, Zhan Qianmin, engineer of the mechanical and Electrical Engineering Department of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of China, Shiela Gail Satura Quingco, Director of the Metropolitan Development Planning Office of the Manila Metropolitan Development Bureau of the Philippines, Mareyke Alelo, Director of the Polyteknik Negeri Manado University, and Abia Roere, a Civil Servant of Tomohon City, Indonesia, spoke in the name of the four Pilot City representatives of Hong Kong, China, Manila in the Philippines, Manado and Tomohon in Indonesia, who had tested the urban SDG tracker database, and put forward feedback suggestions to the system administrators. Finally, Nuttavikhom Phanthuwongpakdee, Asia coordinator of EPIC-N, shared insights of the city university cooperation model.

At the end of the forum, Steivan Defilla, assistant director of APSEC, expressed greetings and thanks to the guests participating in the APEC sustainable city cooperation project Workshop. At the same time, the guests took an online group photo with attendees of the APSEC Workshop.

This seminar is an important activity of APSEC. Focusing on the theme of "defining the vision and objectives of carbon emission reduction for cities: stakeholder dialogue and the role of urban data", experts provided intellectual support for the deepening of sustainable urban construction. The theme sharing and in-depth discussion of this seminar defined the vision and objectives of carbon emission reduction from multiple dimensions of urban development, shared the role of urban data in achieving the "double carbon" goal from the perspective of urban sustainable development database construction, and collected data feedback from various pilot cities, which promoted the development, promotionand dissemination of the concept of urban sustainable development in APEC region.