Secretary for Environment & Ecology Tse Chin-wan today attended the opening ceremony of the second High-level Conference of the Forum on Global Action for Shared Development in Beijing.

Five parallel forums will be held for the event, focusing on eight key areas of co-operation of the Global Development Initiative to promote in-depth exchanges of experiences and insights in building consensus on global development, combatting imminent challenges and enhancing sustainability of development.

Member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi gave a keynote speech at the forum.

Representatives from different countries and international organisations also attended the forum. Other participants included representatives from local and overseas enterprises, non-governmental organisations and foundations.

Mr Tse also visited the Earth System Science Numerical Simulator Facility of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Apart from being a key scientific and technological infrastructure project of the National 12th Five-Year Plan, the facility is the first of its kind in the country with its own intellectual property rights and ranks among the world's leading earth system simulators in terms of scale and comprehensive technical standards.

It integrates simulations and observation data to improve the accuracy of forecasting and provides scientific support for major issues such as preventing and mitigating national disaster, combatting climate change and managing the atmospheric environment.

In addition to noting that the Earth System Science Numerical Simulator Facility is a global leading scientific research tool in combatting climate change and achieving carbon neutrality, Mr Tse said that he hopes to further enhance co-operation with the Mainland and strengthen personnel exchange and training between the two places.