On November 14, the Third Full Authors' Meeting and Expert Consultation for the "Report of Synergetic Roadmap on Carbon Neutrality and Clean Air for China (2025)" was held in Beijing. The meeting was chaired by Professor Lu Xi, Assistant Dean of the Institute for Carbon Neutrality, Tsinghua University(ICON, Tsinghua), who also served as the Lead Convener of the 2025 Annual Report.

Professor Lu Xi, on behalf of the report working group, introduced the main content of the report. The meeting specially invited consulting experts to review the report and provide suggestions, including Professor Zhang Shiqiu from the College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Peking University; Jiang Liping, Professor-level Senior Engineer and Third-level Consultant of State Grid Energy Research Institute; Professor Wang Shuxiao from the School of Environment, Tsinghua University; Professor Duan Xiaoli, Associate Dean of the School of Energy and Environmental Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing; Professor Sun Ying, Chief Scientist of the National Climate Center; Researcher Xu Yanling from the Chinese Academy of Environmental Planning; Professor Wang Ke from the School of Ecology and Environment, Renmin University of China; and Researcher Chen Dan, Deputy Director of the Climate Change and Energy Transition Program at the Institute of Energy, Peking University. Additionally, Academician He Kebin, Dean of the Institute for Carbon Neutrality, Tsinghua University and Co-Chair of the report working group, along with more than 20 experts involved in the report's compilation, participated in the meeting either onsite or online.

Meeting Scene

At the beginning of the meeting, Liu Xin, Director of the Environmental Management Program at the Energy Foundation, introduced the project background. Noting that 2025 marks a critical period concluding China's 14th Five-Year Plan and planning for the 15th Five-Year Plan, he stated that this year's report systematically reviews China's progress in the synergistic governance of carbon neutrality and clean air since the 14th Five-Year Plan, evaluates the effectiveness of synergistic governance, and aims to provide a reference for China's 15th Five-Year Plan synergistic governance efforts.

Subsequently, Academician He Kebin, Co-Chair of the working group, delivered a speech. He pointed out that this series of reports, after five years of accumulation, has developed a unique style and characteristics, attracting widespread attention from various sectors both domestically and internationally. With the successive introduction of China's new Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and the recommendations for the 15th Five-Year Plan, higher requirements and expectations have correspondingly been placed on this year's report. Currently, the international community is highly focused on how China will further advance its work on reducing carbon emissions and pollution. Therefore, it is hoped that this year's report, while maintaining its existing features and paradigm, will incorporate both updates and innovations, truly reflecting the cutting-edge achievements of Chinese scientific and technological workers in the synergistic governance of carbon reduction and pollution control.

Following this, Professor Lu Xi, Lead Convener of the 2025 Annual Report, explained that the series of reports aims to track the latest progress in China's synergistic governance of air pollution and climate change in a timely manner, systematically demonstrate governance effectiveness, identify weak links, propose future pathways, and promote the formation of a closed loop of policy formulation, evaluation, and optimization, thereby facilitating the effective implementation of synergistic governance policies. As the fifth installment in the series, this year's report centers on constructing a monitoring indicator system for synergistic governance of air pollution and climate change, adheres to the deep integration of natural and social sciences, and updates and refines certain indicators based on the continuation of the previous indicator framework. By tracking the progress of various indicators, strengthening the comparison of key indicators' development domestically and internationally, systematically evaluating the phased progress since the 14th Five-Year Plan, summarizing achievements and shortcomings, the report deeply analyzes the challenges faced by China's synergistic governance of carbon neutrality and clean air and proposes targeted countermeasures and suggestions.

The attending experts generally agreed that this year's report has a complete structure and detailed data, holding significant practical importance during the critical juncture between the conclusion of China's 14th Five-Year Plan and the formulation of the 15th Five-Year Plan. The experts fully affirmed the efforts of the report working group in updating and innovating the report, and put forward a series of constructive suggestions regarding structural optimization and content deepening. These included: optimizing the presentation format of each chapter to highlight core conclusions; emphasizing the underlying logic of the policy system to reflect Chinese governance wisdom and enhance international influence; innovating the evaluation perspective on pollution and carbon reduction synergy, focusing on the synergy evaluation of multi-level and multi-sectoral policies; strengthening the analysis of regional differences and typical case studies to provide references for national and local governments in formulating differentiated pathways; and further strengthening the connection with the 15th Five-Year Plan and NDC targets, enhancing the intrinsic correlation analysis and co-benefit analysis among air pollution, climate change, and health. Looking ahead, the experts expressed hope that this series of reports will continue to strengthen systematic thinking and forward-looking perspectives, not only reflecting China's achievements and commitments but also contributing more influential Chinese solutions to global climate and environmental governance.

As the next step, the working group will integrate the experts' opinions and continue to refine the content of the report.