To advance the global Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and carbon footprint system to a higher level, the annual conference of the Carbon Footprint Industry Technology Innovation Alliance, known as the "Tiangong Forum," was held on March 25-26 in Xuanwu District, Nanjing. This year’s forum was co-hosted by the Alliance and the Carbon Footprint Professional Committee of the Chinese Society for Environmental Sciences, with Envision Group serving as the lead sponsor. Supporting organizations included the Institute for Carbon Neutrality at Tsinghua University, the School of Environment at Tsinghua University, the "Carbon Neutrality and Energy System Transformation" (CNEST) multilateral collaboration program, and the Global Digital Carbon Valley (GDC).

To support the development of China’s national carbon footprint management system and promote global innovation and application of LCA and carbon footprint methodologies, Tsinghua University launched the "Tiangong Initiative." Embracing an open-source and collaborative spirit, the Initiative regularly organizes the Tiangong Forum to foster global connectivity, interoperability, and mutual trust in data, methods, tools, and applications. The 2026 Tiangong Forum, themed "Globally Interconnected, Interoperable and Mutually Trusted LCA and Carbon Footprint Systems," featured a main forum, an LCA Developers Conference, a UNEP Global LCA Platform Workshop, and sector-specific sub-forums. The event attracted representatives from the United Nations, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), and governments, enterprises, industry associations, and academic institutions from over a dozen countries, including the United States, Germany, France, Brazil, India, and Peru. Nearly 100 organizations participated, with more than 500 attendees.

The main forum was held on the morning of March 26. Responsible leaders from the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the Jiangsu Provincial Development and Reform Commission, the Jiangsu Provincial Department of Ecology and Environment, and the Xuanwu District Government delivered opening remarks. He Kebin, Chairman of the Alliance, Dean of the Institute for Carbon Neutrality at Tsinghua University, and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, addressed the forum via video, stating that further efforts would be made to build consensus, deepen collaboration, and drive new progress in LCA and product carbon footprint work.

The keynote session was moderated by Sangwon Suh, Xinghua Chair Professor at Tsinghua University. Presentations covered topics such as global LCA cooperation, carbon footprint data infrastructure, improving carbon accounting rules through LCA, credibility and interoperability of bioeconomy LCA methods, and trusted transfer of product carbon data across supply chains.

Llorenç Milà i Canals, Head of the Secretariat of the UNEP Life Cycle Initiative, highlighted the vision for a Global LCA Platform, proposing the integration of fragmented data, methods, and capacity-building resources into a globally accessible and trusted public infrastructure.

Xu Ming, Secretary-General of the Carbon Footprint Industry Technology Innovation Alliance, Carbon Neutrality Chair Professor at Tsinghua University, and Vice Dean of the School of Environment, systematically presented the evolution of the Tiangong Initiative from an LCA and carbon footprint database toward a "globally shared, open data infrastructure," addressing key data challenges in China’s product carbon footprint management.

Matthias Finkbeiner, Professor at the Technical University of Berlin, analyzed challenges in accounting and policy implementation on the path to carbon neutrality from a life cycle perspective, emphasizing the need to focus on full life cycles, real material and energy flows, and the avoidance of problem shifting.

Lorie Hamelin, Researcher at France’s National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment (INRAE), Chair Professor at INSA Toulouse, and Chief Scientist at Xianghu Laboratory, discussed the credibility and interoperability of bioeconomy LCA methods, using case studies to address the timing effects of biogenic carbon flows, transparency, and uncertainty.

Eric Mieras, General Manager of PRé and Chief Innovation Officer of One Click LCA, focused on the global LCI data ecosystem, stressing that consolidating a unified foundational data base and enhancing transparency and interoperability are key to moving LCA from static research to large-scale application.

Naama Avni-Kadosh, Director of the Partnership for Carbon Transparency (PACT) at the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), discussed the development of a trusted product-level carbon data infrastructure, proposing a neutral, interoperable global network to connect national systems, industry platforms, and corporate tools, thereby improving the comparability, exchangeability, and reliability of supply chain carbon data.

The reports systematically presented cutting-edge trends and key directions in LCA and carbon footprint system development across multiple dimensions—including international cooperation, methodological rules, database construction, and supply chain data connectivity—offering significant insights for advancing interconnected, interoperable, and mutually trusted systems and enhancing the trusted application of product carbon footprint data.

In addition to the main forum, the 2026 Tiangong Forum featured specialized sub-forums focusing on key sectors such as electric power, petrochemicals and chemicals, batteries, and electronic appliances. These sessions conducted in-depth discussions and exchanges on topics including carbon footprint factor database development, alignment with international rules, and data interoperability.

Two events stood out as highlights of the forum: the world’s first LCA Developers Conference and the UNEP Global LCA Platform Workshop.

The inaugural LCA Developers Conference brought together nearly all major international LCA institutions, including developers of leading LCA tools and databases such as SimaPro, ecoinvent, GaBi, openLCA, Brightway, Carbon Minds, and Minviro, as well as top Chinese organizations like Haike Data and Envision Digital. Specialized discussions were held on LCA tools, data, open-source systems, AI technology applications, and data exchange protocols.

During the forum, the United Nations Environment Programme hosted a Global LCA Platform Workshop, primarily targeting LCA service providers and data developers. The workshop focused on user profiles, use cases, and community collaboration models. Following the first workshop held in Milan, Italy, in July 2025, this session further advanced the development of an internationally interconnected, interoperable, and mutually trusted LCA and carbon footprint system.

Xinhua Net reported on the conference under the title "2026 Tiangong Forum Held in Nanjing, Jiangsu: Global Dialogue on Carbon Footprint System Development and Collaborative Progress," stating that "Chinese and international institutions conducted in-depth discussions and practical exchanges, further expanding the space for cooperation and communication between China and international organizations, industry platforms, and professional technical systems." Xu Ming, Secretary-General of the Carbon Footprint Industry Technology Innovation Alliance and Chair Professor at Tsinghua University, said in an interview with Xinhua Net: "China is currently accelerating the development of its product carbon footprint management system, with continuous strengthening of foundational capabilities in methods, data, and platforms. Moving forward, we will continue to rely on the Alliance and open cooperation platforms to deepen international exchanges and collaboration, actively engage in relevant rule-setting dialogues, and help Chinese solutions better serve the global green and low-carbon transition."