International Joint Laboratory of Regional Pollution Control (IJRC) convened the 2022 annual meeting online on 14th, October. Prof. Andreas Wahner, IJRC Dean of German counterpart, Dr. Anna Novelli, Dr. Thorsten Hohaus, Dr. Franz Rohrer, Dr. Hendric Fuchs and Dr. Seren Zorn from Jülich Research Center and IJRC Dean of CESE-PKU, Prof. Yuanhang ZHANG, Academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering, Prof. Min HU, IJRC Executive Dean, Prof. Limin ZENG, Dr. Keding LU, Dr. Song GUO, Dr. Xin LI, Dr. Zhijun WU from CESE-PKU, and visiting scholar Dr. Zhaofeng TAN attended the meeting, which was chaired by Prof. Andreas Wahner.

In the face of growing health impacts from extreme weather, climate change and air pollution, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and World Health Organization (WHO) have agreed to step up joint action to tackle environmental health risks that cause an estimated 12.6 million premature deaths every year.

As the largest and most populous continent in the world, Asia plays an extremely important role in global climate change research and response. By establishing more reliable climate change models and accurately assessing the likely impacts of climate change, researchers and stakeholders can prepare appropriate policies and measures as comprehensively as possible. To achieve this goal, on 21 June 2022, the opening plenary session for the Asia Spotlight Event was held online on the Sustainability Research and Innovation (SRI) Congress 2022.

As part of the “Earth Summit Mission 2022" expedition, Professor Zhu Tong from PKU and his team have successfully carried out comprehensive research across various scientific issues on Earth’s highest peak—Mount Qomolangma. Let’s take a closer look at the team.

The international exchanges between members of International Joint Laboratory of Regional Pollution Control (IJRC) were greatly restricted due to the wide spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. Both sides of IJRC, the College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering of Peking University (CESE-PKU) and Forschungszentrum Jülich (Jülich), have been trying best to establish mutual online contact. The IJRC future work plan workshop was held via ZOOM on November 17.

Annually 4.2 million deaths globally are attributed to the exposure to ambient air pollution. Good air quality is thus essential for human health and the environment, and critical to achieve the UN 2030 Sustainability Development Goals. The World Health Organization (WHO) has called to reduce two thirds of the mortality due to air pollution by the year 2030. How to reach this target is a grand challenge to global society, and requires joint efforts by scientists, policymakers, industry, and the public.