The effects of urbanisation were at the top of the agenda in Shanghai when academics and officials from China and Europe met to talk about shared areas of research. Ian Campbellreports

CHINESE POLITICIANS and academics gave a rare insight into their plans around the thorny issue of climate change this month when they took part in a series of day-long sessions that highlighted the country’s involvement with European Union research projects.

They also left no doubt that they share the ambition of western countries to become an innovation economy and outlined plans to achieve their goal by 2020.

About 500 scientists, academia, media and government representatives from Europe and China assembled in Shanghai, where more than 30 research projects were discussed at the EU pavilion in the 2010 World Expo.

Many of the projects involved the EU and China working together to combat the environmental impact of urbanisation, chiming nicely with the “Better City, Better Life” theme of the expo.

The Chinese vice minister of science and technology, Cao Jianlin, tackled the perception that China was a laggard in environmental issues. “The EU is definitely taking a lead in combating climate change and, as a developing country, China needs assistance and support from the developed countries. The EU is the key partner for China.”

He added that mounting an effective response to climate change was dependent on having a strong economy to support the development of expensive technological solutions. “We want the EU to work with Chinese scientists to reduce the cost of the technology,” he said.

Further insights into the challenge facing China came from Ma Zhong, a professor of economics and president of the Institute of Environmental Studies at Renmin University in Beijing. He reeled off some staggering statistics – the current population split of 500 million urban to 800 million rural will be reversed by 2030; a pollution haze hangs over cities 30-50 per cent of the time; 60 per cent of cities have a water shortage and 90 per cent of rivers are polluted.

“It is urbanisation on an unprecedented scale in the world and a huge concern for China,” he said, emphasising the connection between urbanisation, water shortages and the degradation of natural eco-systems. He was also quick to remind an audience of journalists that, “China is the world’s manufacturer”, compounding the challenge of environmentalism.

China-EU co-operation is seen by both sides as a way to tackle global problems that are particularly pertinent to China. At present, 145 Chinese researchers have received €28 million, €19 million of which came from the European Commission, for strategic partnership schemes that look into key societal areas such as transport, social sciences and biotech.

Much of this money comes from the Seventh Framework Programme, a research and innovation funding scheme. The programme will have awarded €54 billion between 2007 and 2013 to 21,000 universities. China is the number three foreign recipient of funds, after the US and Russia.

In a rare echo of China’s communist past, Han Jianguo, director general at the National Natural Science Foundation (NSFC), described science and technology as “primary forces of productivity”. The NSFC is responsible for the nation’s science funding and behind plans to make China an innovation country by 2020, a strategy supported by a growing slice of the country’s GDP that is earmarked for investment in innovation, talent and international co-operation.

Han Jianguo said it was important that indigenous research projects grew and that there was a greater emphasis on spin-offs with innovation aligned to the economy. “Basic research creates knowledge and the knowledge should be used in production. In the past we didn’t care how knowledge was used; now we encourage scientists to pursue curiosity research and tie it in with the national strategic demand.”

If some of these issues sound familiar, some challenges were uniquely Chinese. One of the projects under discussion was carbon capture, a method for disposing of harmful CO2 omissions.

What seems like a perfect fit for China’s urban sprawl runs into problems because the solution requires lots of water that the Chinese cities are unable to spare.

The water shortage was explored further by Cai Jianming from Beijing University. He is working with his European counterparts on developing more sustainable water systems for cities.

About 80 per cent of rainfall in China occurs between June and September and much of it is used for agricultural irrigation. A pilot scheme is under way, with 700 rainwater ponds used to harvest and store the water.

“We have to solve the problems caused by agriculture and other sectors in the economy competing for water and water planning should be part of urban planning from the outset, not something you do later,” he said.

Another session was on better transport planning, where Dr Yanyying Li, project leader on a number of Seventh Framework initiatives, highlighted the value of the EU-China partnership.

“Europe has gone through the phase we’re going through now and we can borrow from them,” she said. “We have to enhance co- operation to avoid repeated research.” She believed the success of smarter transportation in cities hinged on electric vehicles.

One recurring theme was familiar to all scientists everywhere – the gap between scientific discovery and government policy, as highlighted by Peking University’s Prof Yuanhang Zhang. He is involved in co-European projects, exploring ways to measure urban pollution in complex city clusters.

“We have to provide a platform to influence government policy making,” he said, admitting that 10 years of collected data had been largely ignored.

The conference was an encouraging indication of the strengthening ties between Chinese and European researchers, but it is not an exclusive relationship.

Minister Cao Jianlin also extended an invitation out to Europe’s small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to work in partnership with China. “SMEs don’t know us as well as the multinationals, but we attach importance to their RD activity.”

He said there was funding for European firms to engage in clean energy research and other areas of science and technology in the 56 science parks that the country is building.