2 Chinese scientists win Germany's Green Talents Award

Green Talents Award 2018 winners from China Zhou Di (L) and Shan Yuli pose for photos at the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research in Berlin, capital of Germany, on Oct. 22, 2018. [Photo/Xinhua]

Two Chinese scientists, together with 23 others from different countries, have been awarded the Green Talents Award 2018 by the German government on Monday for their achievements in sustainability related research.

The 25 young awardees were honoured at the "Green Talents - International Forum for High Potentials in Sustainable Development" held by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) in Berlin. The forum aims at promoting the international exchange of innovative green ideas.

Two Chinese scientists, Zhou Di and Shan Yuli, were among the 25 awardees for their respective expertise in environmental law and low carbon cities.

Shan Yuli, researcher in Climate Change Economics with the U.K.'s University of East Anglia, told Xinhua, "I feel quite honored for receiving the prize, and I think I was awarded because of my research on low-carbon roadmaps for Chinese cities.

He is engaged in working out a catalogue of carbon emission statistics of various levels of Chinese localities and proposing low-carbon development models for different localities accordingly. His research has been published by the journal "Science Advances".

The jury highlighted Shan's study "City-level climate change mitigation in China" which found that different cities should have different low-carbon roadmaps due to the natural resources available to them and previous development tracks in each city.

Zhou Di, a post-doctorate researcher with China's Wuhan University, said her research aimed at making laws and regulations at both central and local levels, national and international levels compatible, so that sustainability can be practiced in a systematic way.

The jury said they were impressed by Zhou's strong interdisciplinary interests and her work on creating a legal system in which the legislation is fully embedded within the idea of sustainability.

"Through this, the rule of law itself can become a driving force for a sustainable development and create an ecological civilization," the jury wrote.

Georg Schutte, State Secretary at the BMBF, said at the award ceremony: "The effects of climate change are becoming more and more visible around the world - even in Germany. This is something that this year's winners of the Green Talents competition are addressing."

"They are making important contributions worldwide to creating a sustainable society with their work in such areas as water management, bioenergy use and alternative economic systems. "

The award winners have been granted unique access to the country's research elite. They attended a two-week Science Forum on Oct. 13-27, visiting different hotspots of sustainability science in Germany.