BEIJING, March 5 (Xinhua) -- The second World Engineering Day for Sustainable Development was held virtually on Thursday night, highlighting global sustainable development and international cooperation.
The event, hosted by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and themed "Engineering for a Healthy Planet," aimed to show the achievements of engineers and engineering in today's modern world, especially in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic and improving public understanding of how engineering and technology are central to modern life and global sustainable development.
A report named "Engineering for Sustainable Development: Delivering on the Sustainable Development Goals" was released on the event, which shows how engineering innovations could contribute to sustainable development and encourages the global engineering sector to join hands to tackle various challenges and accelerate the achievement of sustainable development goals.
Audrey Azoulay, director-general of the UNESCO, said that engineering plays a vital role in pioneering inventions, tackling the pandemic and achieving sustainable development goals in today's world.
Li Xiaohong, president of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said that engineering for sustainable development requires enhanced global cooperation.
"The distribution of engineering science and technology resources in the world is still very unbalanced. Innovative and high-quality engineering education needs to be popularized. The concepts of sustainable development and responsible engineering need to be further strengthened," Li said.
Gong Ke, president of the World Federation of Engineering Organizations, said that engineering needs to initiate reformative development, adding that interdisciplinary, inter-sector and international collaboration is needed to invest and strengthen the capacity of engineering innovations across the world, especially in developing countries, to help mankind and the planet shape a sustainable future.
In November 2019 during its 40th General Conference, the UNESCO designated March 4 as the World Engineering Day for Sustainable Development. Enditem
