On March 4th, 2021 at 8 p.m. (GMT+8), the UNESCO Engineering Report II in both Chinese and English was officially released from the headquarters of UNESCO in Paris, France and in Beijing. The report was supported jointly by the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE) and Tsinghua University, and collectively published by UNESCO and the International Centre for Engineering Education under the auspices of UNESCO (ICEE).

Following a proposal by the World Federation of Engineering Organizations (WFEO), the 2021 World Engineering Day celebration themed Engineering for a Healthy Planet: Celebrating the UNESCO Engineering Report was held online on March 4, 2021. The UNESCO Engineering Report II titled Engineering for Sustainable Development was officially released at the online event. Shamila Nair-Bedouelle, Assistant Director-General of UNESCO, chaired the online celebration. The main event included attendance by Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO; President LI Xiaohong of CAE; WU Qidi, former Vice Minister of the Ministry of Education, P.R.C. and Director of ICEE; GONG Ke, President of WFEO, and others. Representatives from engineering organizations, heads of institutions and young engineers, as well as university professors and students from China, the United States, Lebanon, Poland, Chile, Uganda and South Korea and other countries and regions participated in the online release activity for the engineering report.

In a speech, Azoulay celebrated UNESCO World Engineering Day for Sustainable Development in 2021 and expressed congratulations on the official release of the UNESCO Engineering Report. She emphasized that engineering is practical and essential, and practical problems at the current stage require feasible solutions from engineering.

LI Xiaohong expressed congratulations on the official release of the UNESCO Engineering Report and the opening of the World Engineering Day on behalf of the China Association for Science and Technology, Tsinghua University and ICEE. According to LI Xiaohong, engineering should contribute more to facilitating sustainable development and that requires the joint efforts of the global engineering community. He added that the UNESCO Engineering Report can generate greater attention to and participation in engineering by the whole world and society, thus empowering human development via engineering and building a more prosperous and sustainable world.

According to WU Qidi, since the global Engineering report project was officially started in Beijing 2017 under the leadership of the UNESCO Natural Sciences Sector, ICEE has spared no effort to organize and coordinate the report writing. WU Qidi emphasized that this engineering report, as one of the flagship reports of UNESCO, was edited and written by a number of editors and over 40 writers from more than 40 international organizations and universities. It will be of great significance in guiding the sustainable development of global engineering and engineering education.

According to YUAN Si, Executive Director of ICEE, the UNESCO Engineering Report II calls on governments, enterprises, universities, research institutions and the public to value engineering more and take concrete actions to accelerate the realization of SDGs through engineering. This report is divided into five chapters: Engineering for a More Sustainable World, Equal Opportunities for All, Engineering Innovations and the Sustainable Development Goals, Engineering Education and Capacity-Building for Sustainable Development, and Regional Trends in Engineering. The chapter Regional Trends in Engineering was later added following a proposal by the ICEE writing team, in order to reflect the increasingly obvious trend of cross-regional cooperation in global engineering activities and incorporate China’s Belt and Road Initiative and the idea of a community with a shared future for mankind into the report through using case examples. The report also made some crucial recommendations to governments of UNESCO member states, industrial circles and academic communities on backing engineering development, improving engineering activities, strengthening capacity building, and facilitating global cooperation and sustainable development.

It took three years to write and compile the UNESCO Engineering Report II, and ICEE was involved in aspects such as topic selection, writing, translation and publication, as well as organization and coordination throughout the process. This report was published in English, French and Chinese, together with the executive summary report published in English, French, Chinese, Russian, Spanish and Arabic. The main report was translated into Chinese by ICEE. As a major international academic cooperation project of ICEE, the members of the ICEE Governing Board and Advisory Board highly value this engineering report, and put forward a series of insightful opinions and suggestions on the report writing and editing.

(Edited by: Wang Yujia, Xu Lihui, Qiao Weifeng, Xie Zheping, Reviewed by: Wang SunYu)