Academician Wu Zhiqiang shares insights into Shanghai Award

Wu Zhiqiang, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, was an international judge of the 2023 Global Award for Sustainable Development in Cities (Shanghai Award). 

Shanghai Award is an international award jointly established by the United Nations Human Settlement Programme (UN-Habitat) and the People’s Government of Shanghai. It is designed to reward cities that have made significant progress in economic vitality and urban prosperity, ecological and green development, urban security and resilience, and sustainable development.

After the award ceremony was held in Shanghai, Wu did an interview with the media and spoke about the award. 

He said that although there were many kinds of sustainable development awards among UN prizes, Shanghai Award was the first one for the United Nations 2030 Agenda, especially the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 11. 

Its applicants came from around the world and also from cities in China. The competition among cities in China for the award was particularly fierce. 

In the evaluation process, it was necessary to benchmark it against the sustainable development goals of the United Nations, said Wu. So, the award had a system and detailed criteria, especially SDG 11 for sustainable development of communities. 

“We saw a lot of good practices in the evaluation process,” Wu added, “These could provide good examples to more cities in China. 

Wu said that winning the award did not mean that the city stands out in every aspect, and added that there was still room for improvement in the award-winning cities. This should be clearly understood, Wu said. 

He added that cities that did not win the award this time should not be discouraged. They could learn from the experiences of the award-winning cities and apply for the award the next time. Also, these cities had features that other cities could learn from, Wu said. 

To compete, he said cities should formulate a sustainable development plan, and do reviews every year with the UN officials.