Identifying, monitoring, understanding and overcoming global challenges together

Berlin, 19 June 2023

Jan Wörner, acatech President, and Zhang Guangjun, Vice Minister at the Chinese Ministry for Science and Technology (MOST), met in Berlin on 19 June 2023, where both expressed a willingness to cooperate and to build on the good relationship between acatech and the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE).

Those present at the meeting between the Chinese Vice Minister for Science and Technology, Zhang Guangjun, and acatech President, Jan Wörner, on 19 June 2023 in Berlin, stressed that global challenges can only be overcome with international cooperation. Jan Wörner outlined four phases involved in such cooperation. Urgent problems first need to be identified and continuously monitored. If these problems are subsequently understood, global challenges, such as climate change, can be tackled or to some extent mitigated by working together at an international level.

The Chinese Vice Minister and CAE member, Professor Zhang Guangjun, sees great potential in electromobility and in the use and storage of carbon in industrial goods as a way of countering climate change. Jan Wörner and Zhang Guangjun agree that innovative technologies for storing wind and solar energy and alternative energy supply technologies must also be developed. In this regard, they see fusion as a possible opportunity to supplement the energy mix with a climate-neutral and cost-efficient source.

Similarly, both are convinced that quantum technology will play a major role in the future and agree to continue strengthening the science-based partnership in the future. To do this, they want to build on the partnership with the CAE, which has been in existence with acatech since 2012. The academies will work bilaterally to develop specific proposals.