On March 4th, 2021 at 8:00 p.m. (GMT+8), the UNESCO Engineering Report II in both Chinese and English was officially launched in the headquarters of UNESCO, Paris, France and Beijing. This 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).

The UNESCO Engineering Report Cover in Chinese and English

Under the proposal of the World Federation of Engineering Organizations (WFEO), the 2021 World Engineering Day celebration themed by Engineering for a Healthy Planet—Celebrating UNESCO Engineering Report was held online on March 4, 2021. The UNESCO Engineering Report II titled Engineering for Sustainable Development was officially released. Shamila Nair-Bedouelle, Assistant Director-General of UNESCO chaired the online celebration. The main event attended 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, etc. Representatives composed of 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 who were participated in the online release activity of the engineering report.

Azoulay first celebrated UNESCO World Engineering Day for Sustainable Development in 2021 and congratulated on the official release of the UNESCO Engineering Report in her speech. Azoulay emphasized, engineering is practical and essential, and the practical problems at the current stage require feasible solutions from engineering.

Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO

LI Xiaohong, congratulated 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, which requires the joint efforts of the global engineering community. It is expected that the UNESCO Engineering Report can contribute to 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.

President LI Xiaohong of CAE

According to WU Qidi, since the global Engineering report project was officially launched in Beijing 2017, under the leadership of the UNESCO Natural Sciences Sector, ICEE has spared no efforts 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 more than 40 writers from over 40 international organizations and universities. It will be of great significance to guide the sustainable development of global engineering and engineering education.

Director WU Qidi of ICEE

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 via 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 under the proposal of 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 via cases. In this report, some crucial recommendations on backing engineering development, improving engineering activities, strengthening capacity building, and facilitating global cooperation and sustainable development were made to governments of UNESCO member states, industrial circles and academic communities.

The scene of the UNESCO Engineering Report release in Beijing

It took three years to write and compile the UNESCO Engineering Report II, and ICEE got involved in such aspects 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 have highly valued 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)