On September 11-12, the 2025 Beijing International Forum for Metropolitan Clean Air and Climate Actions, hosted by the Beijing Municipal Ecology and Environment Bureau, was successfully held in Beijing. The theme of this year’s forum is “Pollution and Carbon Reduction-Regional Coordination”. The 2025 forum brought together international and local policymakers, experts, researchers, and business representatives in the climate and environmental fields to explore science-based pathways and intelligent solutions for advancing cross-regional cooperation in pollution and carbon reduction. As a committed partner of the forum, ICLEI actively mobilized global resources, enriching the forum with international perspectives and practical experience.

 

Gino Van Begin, Secretary General of ICLEI, was invited to deliver an opening remark at the plenary session of the forum. He emphasized that ICLEI consistently works with local and regional governments to implement science-based strategies, tailored to the unique challenges of their regions. He shared examples of ICLEI’s global initiatives with the audience: In Europe, the ICLEI Action Fund supports non-profit organizations and academic institutions in using data and technology for impactful climate and environmental action. In the United States and across Europe, ICLEI works with the Google Environmental Insights Explorer (EIE) to help cities streamline the process of developing greenhouse gas inventories, making climate action more feasible and data-driven. In East Asia, ICLEI East Asia Secretariat initiated the East Asia Carbon-Neutral Cities Accelerator , and identify, collect, analyse, and promote innovative practices of East Asian cities in low-emission development. In 2025, ICLEI East Asia Secretariat is actively conducting research on volatile organic compound management in three East Asian Megacities, showcasing the cities’ best practices in air quality management. The 2025 Compendium of Best Practices for Carbon-Neutral Cities will be released by year-end, providing a reliable foundation for cross-city experience exchange and mutual learning. In closing his remarks, Gino Van Begin called for worldwide local actions and close collaboration to achieve global pollution and carbon reduction.

Gino Van Begin, Secretary General of ICLEI, delivered an opening remark at the forum 

 

DRYADS is one of the highlight projects funded by the ICLEI Action Fund. Jointly led by the National Kapodistrian University of Athens and the Ministry of Environment and Energy of Greece, the project focuses on wildfire risk management in forests and peri-urban areas. Lina Magoula, Technical Manager at the SCAN Lab of the Department of Informatics and Telecommunications, National Kapodistrian University of Athens, presented the progress and achievements of DRYADS at the session on Intelligent Digitalization Enabling Urban Governance Practices. Through AI-powered models, DRYADS enables early detection of waste and wildfires, as well as fire evolution forecasting. Together with Digital Twin geospatial models and IoT technologies, the project can simulate wildfire behavior in real time, supporting scientific decision-making and proactive prevention. Vari Voula Vouliagmeni Municipality of Greece, has integrated DRYADS with their surveillance systems, including drones and static patrol cameras, significantly enhancing its wildfire response capacity. From research into practice, DRYADS has proven its efficiency in Greece and offers replicable digital disaster prevention solutions for cities in other countries. The project significantly contributes to strengthening the resilience of forest ecosystems and advancing local climate change mitigation strategies.

Lina Magoula, Technical Manager at the SCAN Lab of the Department of Informatics and Telecommunications, National Kapodistrian University of Athens, delivered a keynote speech

 

Shin Eun Chul, Head of Air Policy Division, Climate & Environment Headquarters of Seoul Metropolitan Government, delivered a keynote speech on the implementation strategies of  “Clearer Seoul 2030.” The strategy includes swiftly changing diesel vehicles to low-emission vehicles, expanding the operation restriction zones of vehicles that cause pollution to entire Seoul, supporting the early scrapping of emission level 4 diesel vehicles, promoting Seoul-type  green construction sites, expanding air pollution prevention facilities, and actively managing ozone risks. In addition, he highlighted Seoul’s IoT-based smart monitoring systemThe system has been installed at 70 large construction sites which are over 10,000 square meters. Through real-time monitoring and big data analysis, the system enables dynamic tracking of particulate emissions at construction sites and facilitates the real-time transmission of emission control measures. This provides critical technical support for Seoul’s precise management of key air pollutants such as PM2.5, further facilitating to achieve the strategic goals of “Clearer Seoul 2030.”

Shin Eun Chul, Head of Air Policy Division, Climate & Environment Headquarters, Seoul Metropolitan Government, delivered a keynote speech

 

Shu Zhu, Regional Director of the ICLEI East Asia Secretariat and China Representative, moderated the panel discussion on the afternoon of September 11. Representatives from the School of Environment at Tsinghua University, the Institute of Atmospheric Physics Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Beijing Municipal Ecological and Environmental Monitoring Center, SUEZ ARIA Technologies (France), and the National Institute for Environmental Studies (Japan) joined the discussion. The panelists shared their insights on leveraging cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence to address climate and air pollution challenges, as well as on advancing regional collaborative actions.

Shu Zhu, Regional Director of the ICLEI East Asia Secretariat and China Representative (first from the left), moderated the panel discussion 

 

​ICLEI will continue to support cities in shifting from adapting to climate change to actively leading the action towards sustainability through capacity-building, project support, and knowledge-sharing. Through this forum, ICLEI has further advanced the sustainable practices of local governments, strengthened collaboration and knowledge exchange between Chinese cities and cities abroad, and provided strong support for global pollution and carbon reduction as well as regional collaborative development.