The EU-China Mayors Dialogue: Cities Delivering a Green and Inclusive Recovery organized by C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group was held via video link on March 24, 2021. At the invitation of the organizer, Beijing Municipal Commission of Housing and Urban-Rural Development sent experts to attend the event. They shared Beijing's experience in pursuing low-carbon sustainable development by constructing new green buildings, converting existing buildings to green ones, and strengthening efforts in energy conservation, and introduced Beijing's achievements in pursing ecological progress. The experts from Beijing introduced Beijing's achievements in promoting green recovery in the field of energy-efficient buildings with detailed data: In 2020, Beijing constructed 25.68 million square meters of green buildings, converted 2.3494 million square meters of existing public buildings to green ones, and put a limit on power consumption of 12,222 public buildings, totaling 163 million square meters. The dialogue was co-chaired by Eric Garcetti, Mayor of Los Angeles and Chair of C40 Cities, and Frans Timmermans, first Vice President of the European Commission. Representatives from Heidelberg (Germany), Lisbon (Portugal), Copenhagen (Denmark), Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Nanjing, and Qingdao, etc. attended the meeting. The dialogue aims to promote exchanges between cities in China and Europe and practical cooperation in post-pandemic green recovery and climate action.
C40 Cities is an international organization of cities started by London in 2005, which aims to promote carbon emission reduction and address climate change. Members are megacities including New York, London, Paris, and Tokyo. In 2017, C40 Cities established its representative office in Beijing as an overseas non-governmental organization. Beijing has been cooperating with C40 as an observer city, which has been productive.
