On 9 October 2021, the 2021 Erhai Forum on Global Ecological Civilisation Construction (the “Erhai Forum”) was held in Dali, Yunnan Province, China. The Forum was a side event of the 15th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15) and was co-organised by the China International Publishing Group (CIPG), the People's Government of Yunnan Province and the China Public Relations Association (CPRA), with the theme “Building an Ecological Civilisation for a Greener Earth”.

Mr. Wan Gang, Vice Chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) National Committee and Minister of Science and Technology, Mr. Du Zhanyuan, President of CIPG, Mr. Qiu Jiang, Vice Governor of Yunnan Province, Mr. Guo Weimin, President of CPRA, Mr. Kung Phoak, Deputy Secretary-General of ASEAN, and Mr. Leslie Maasdorp, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of the New Development Bank (NDB), attended the forum and delivered speeches, and more than 300 Chinese and foreign guests attended the forum. Mr. Chen Dehai, Secretary-General of the ASEAN-China Centre (ACC), attended the forum and spoke at the keynote dialogue.

President Du Zhanyuan said that to promote the construction of global ecological civilisation, it is necessary to focus on common concerns and spread rational voices, so as to lay a solid foundation for the construction of global ecological civilisation; to build an exchange platform and promote knowledge sharing, so as to contribute wisdom to further building a clean and beautiful world; to advocate multilateralism and promote international cooperation, so as to build synergy for a better future of mankind. The Erhai Forum will effectively promote theoretical exploration and exchange of experience in global ecological governance, and play an increasingly important role in advancing the construction of global ecological civilisation.

Vice Governor Qiu Jiang said that Yunnan is the ecological security barrier in the southwest of China. In recent years, Yunnan has been promoting ecological civilisation on all fronts as the level of green development is rising, biodiversity conservation is achieving remarkable results, ecological environment quality continuing to improve and ecological culture is being enriched. Yunnan will continue to consolidate and develop the advantages of ecological civilisation, build a green, low-carbon and recyclable economic system around the goal of achieving carbon peaking and carbon neutrality, promote the ecologicalisation of industries and the industrialisation of ecology, and promote sustainable economic and social development.

Deputy Secretary-General Kung Phoak said that ASEAN and China have been working closely together in many fields for a long time, particularly in the fields of biodiversity and ecological conservation, eco-friendly cities building, and green industries and technologies promotion. and the two sides have achieved remarkable achievements in their cooperation. Southeast Asia is one of the world's richest regions in terms of biological assets, but the region is currently facing serious challenges in building an ecological civilisation. ASEAN Member States (AMS) should take immediate actions, which requires stronger support from key partners including China.

Secretary-General Chen Dehai pointed out in the theme dialogue that ASEAN and China are active participants and contributors to global environmental governance. Both sides attach great importance to the  cooperation in ecological environment, sustainable development, green transformation and biodiversity conservation, and have achieved fruitful results. The two sides should further enhance policy communication and development planning synergy on ecological civilisation construction and sustainable development cooperation, strengthen mechanisms and capacity building, push forward key cooperation projects, promote high-quality regional economic development and facilitate international communication of ecological civilisation construction.

During the forum, Chinese and foreign guests witnessed the official inauguration of the Secretariat of the Erhai Forum and the multilingual editions’ release of China Keywords: Ecological Civilisation by the Academy of Contemporary China and World Studies.

The forum also featured four parallel sub-forums, including “Chinese Wisdom on the Construction of Ecological Civilisation”, “International Communication on the Construction of Ecological Civilisation”, and “The 'Double Carbon' Targets: New Opportunities for Corporate Image Building” and “Green Finance for the Construction of Ecological Civilisation”. Mr. Arianto Surojo, Director of the Information and Public Relations Division of ACC, attended and spoke at the sub-forums.