The year 2025 has been designated the "Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Year of Sustainable Development."

As the rotating presidency of the SCO in 2024-2025, China has actively carried out a series of cooperative actions with SCO member states around key areas including poverty reduction, food security, public health, development financing, climate change, green development, digital economy and connectivity.

Under the guidance of the Shanghai Spirit and the building of an SCO community with a shared future, deepening cooperation on sustainable development is conductive to enhancing the well-being of the peoples in the SCO region.

The SCO Summit 2025 is scheduled to take place in north China's Tianjin from August 31 to September 1.

It is the fifth time that China has hosted the SCO Summit and the largest one since the establishment of the organization. Leaders from more than 20 countries and heads of 10 international organizations will attend the summit.

Green transformation

In the process of SCO member states promoting green energy transformation, Chinese companies have participated in the investment and construction of a series of clean and renewable energy landmark projects, effectively promoting the sustainable development of the regional economy.

Built by a Chinese company, the Al Dhafra solar photovoltaic project in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, can generate enough electricity to meet the needs of about 200,000 households in the UAE. It can also reduce carbon emissions by more than 2.4 million tonnes per year, provide about 5,000 local jobs, and increase the proportion of clean energy in the UAE's energy mix to more than 13 percent.

The project is a shining example of how countries of the SCO work together to pursue green development. The UAE is a dialogue partner of the SCO.

Today, green development has emerged as a highlight of cooperation among SCO countries. Technological innovation in the ecological and environmental protection industries has emerged as a key driver for optimizing energy structures and facilitating green, low-carbon transformation.

For instance, the Huadian-Teninskaya gas-steam combined heat and power plant, jointly built by China and Russia, can generate 3.02 billion kWh per year. Invested and constructed by Hunan Junxin Environmental Protection Co., Ltd., the waste incineration plant in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, is the first waste incineration power generation project in Kyrgyzstan.

Boosted by its dual carbon goals of peaking carbon emissions before 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality before 2060, China's environmental protection industry has made major technological breakthroughs in various fields and become an important force for promoting green transformation.

High-quality agricultural development

Meanwhile, the SCO has in recent years actively carried out agricultural cooperation to promote high-quality development of regional agriculture.

Since its establishment in 2019, the SCO Demonstration Base for Agricultural Technology Exchange and Training has strengthened technical output assistance in line with the agricultural development needs of SCO member countries. It has dispatched over 190 experts in 73 groups to SCO countries to establish modern agricultural technology demonstration parks, promoting and disseminating more than 110 high-quality crop varieties and efficient cultivation techniques.

Through initiatives like the Pakistan Agricultural "Thousand Talents Program," the base has trained over 2,400 agricultural officials and technicians from SCO and developing countries.

Chinese agricultural technologies and models are gradually being adopted across SCO countries, delivering positive outcomes.

At the agricultural technology demonstration parks in Kazakhstan and Belarus, comparative trials of wheat varieties have shown that Chinese varieties can increase yields by up to 60 percent compared to local varieties. At a China-Uzbekistan water-saving agriculture demonstration park in Uzbekistan, the use of smart integrated water and fertilizer irrigation equipment has reduced water consumption by 50 percent.

Speaking at the 2025 SCO Forum on Poverty Reduction and Sustainable Development in May, Shen Yueyue, vice chairperson of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and chairperson of the Good-Neighborliness, Friendship and Cooperation Commission of the SCO, called on SCO countries to join hands to move towards modernization, promote cooperation on poverty reduction and sustainable development, and contribute to achieving common prosperity.