On December 5th, Zhejiang University of Technology (ZJUT) and the Chinese Society for Environmental Sciences (CSES) jointly held a launch event in Beijing for the Global Environmental Think Tank Development Report 2025 (hereinafter referred to as the Report). Speeches at the opening ceremony were delivered by Zhou Guohui, Vice Chairman of the 12th Zhejiang Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and President of the Zhejiang Association for Science Popularization; Erik Solheim, former UN Under-Secretary-General, former Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme, and Co-Chair of the EU-Asia Centre Governing Board; Xia Zuyi, Vice Chairman and Secretary-General of CSES; Tu Chunfei, Party Leadership Group Member and Vice Chairperson of the Zhejiang Federation of Humanities and Social Sciences; and Chen Yao, Party Committee Member and Vice President of ZJUT. The opening ceremony was hosted by Zhou Tao, Assistant Secretary-General of CSES.
The Report was researched and compiled by the Green Innovation and Development Strategy Research Center of ZJUT, which was jointly guided and established by ZJUT and CSES. It aims to promote the development and cooperation of global environmental think tanks through the study and evaluation of them. The core sections of the Report cover the development history of global environmental governance, significant progress of global environmental think tanks, a two-dimensional comparison of global environmental think tanks, an evaluation system for global environmental think tanks, evaluation results and case studies of global environmental think tanks, and future prospects for global environmental think tanks.
In his speech, Erik Solheim noted that China has achieved globally recognized accomplishments in ecological and environmental protection as well as green and low-carbon development, with environmental think tanks also showing a vigorous and positive trend. The Report not only provides excellent analysis and evaluation of global environmental think tanks but also showcases China's achievements in the construction of environmental think tanks to the world. He pointed out that the Report's comparative analysis of think tanks in developing and developed countries is highly valuable. Currently, environmental think tanks in developing countries face challenges such as funding shortages and insufficient institutional and research capacities. Developed countries can assist developing countries in enhancing their capabilities for environmental policy formulation and implementation through capacity-building cooperation, thereby further improving global environmental governance and uniting stronger forces to address global ecological and environmental challenges.
Chen Yao stated that in recent years, ZJUT has closely aligned with national strategies and regional needs, vigorously promoting interdisciplinary integration and blending of humanities and sciences. Anchoring in national strategies, the university's Green Innovation and Development Strategy Research Center focuses on issues like global environmental governance and regional green development as core directions. It brought together interdisciplinary researchers for over a year and a half, building a database of nearly ten thousand data entries on global environmental think tanks. The university will use iterative report updates as a driver, be guided by policy needs, leverage industry-academia collaboration as a link, and accelerate the transformation of environmental think tank achievements from academic research to industrial practice, contributing ZJUT's wisdom to the global green transition.
During the launch event, Erik Solheim was appointed as a Distinguished Professor of ZJUT.
It is reported that a total of 896 environmental think tanks were included in the Report's analysis and evaluation, comprising 506 professional environmental think tanks and 390 comprehensive think tanks, covering 97 countries. In terms of regional distribution, the Asia-Pacific region has the highest number of environmental think tanks (282), followed by Europe (255), North America (176), Latin America and the Caribbean (125), with Africa having the fewest (58). By country, the United States has the most environmental think tanks, with China ranking second. Other countries with a high number of environmental think tanks include Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Brazil, Canada, Japan, India, and Italy.
The Report pioneered the IRPP Four-Dimensional Model, evaluating global environmental think tanks from four dimensions: Institutional Profile, Research Output, Policy Engagement, and Public Influence. It also compared the development of global environmental think tanks from the perspectives of developed and developing countries. The Report shows that the United States has the highest number of think tanks selected as global top environmental think tanks, followed by Germany, with China in third place, closely followed by India and the United Kingdom. However, the top 10 environmental think tanks are all from Europe and the United States, indicating the strong strength of developed nations. This suggests that developing countries have significant potential for growth in strengthening their environmental think tank development.
Particularly noteworthy is that, driven by both ecological civilization construction and the development of new think tanks with Chinese characteristics, China's environmental think tanks are demonstrating a robust and positive development trend. China's strategic research, technological innovation, policy consultation, and social service practices in the fields of ecological and environmental protection and green development provide new ideas for the global development of environmental think tanks. The Report indicates that 8 Chinese think tanks were selected as global top environmental think tanks, 6 were selected as top think tanks in the field of environmental pollution control, 6 in biodiversity and ecosystems, 4 in climate change, 4 in sustainable development, and 3 in clean energy transition.
Over 100 representatives from research institutes, universities, enterprises, international organizations, academic journals, and domestic and international think tanks in the fields of ecological environment and green development attended the launch event. More than 20 media outlets, including Xinhua News Agency, China Media Group, Guangming Daily, Science and Technology Daily, China Science Daily, China Environment News, People's Political Consultative Conference News, Economic Information Daily, and China Global Television Network, covered the event on-site.
