The China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development's annual report has highlighted the urgency of harnessing green innovation to drive high-quality development in the global economy, amid the challenges posed by economic volatility, inflation and geopolitical divisions.

The annual report, first published in 2002, focuses on addressing key environmental and developmental issues in China and the world.

This year, the report, titled Green Innovation, emphasized the need to empower green innovation from a market and collaborative perspective to promote sustainable development.

Innovation is crucial for achieving high-quality green development, the report said, highlighting the importance of combining low-carbon technologies with digitalization to drive green innovation.

Digitalization plays a crucial role in identifying cost-effective ways to reduce emissions in various sectors, including building resilient cities and helping industries that have difficulty reducing emissions.

The report provides practical examples of how digitalization can support decarbonization and sustainable development. These include offering sustainable fashion choices to online shoppers, optimizing commodity value chains such as palm oil and soy through digital traceability systems, and enabling real-time monitoring of environmental and climate conditions.

Green innovation acts as a catalyst for achieving carbon reduction goals as well as addressing pollution and ecosystem management, the report said.

To support green innovation, it is essential to establish supportive institutional mechanisms and policies.

The CCICED report prioritizes green innovation to create a collaborative environment that leverages market forces and technology to drive sustainable development.

The report mentioned the challenges faced by the global economy, such as fluctuations, inflation and geopolitical divisions, underlining that these factors impact economic growth, unemployment rates, trade and foreign investment.

The report added that increased damage has been caused by extreme weather events due to climate change.

This year, the world's average temperature has reached its highest level on record. Many regions of China experienced record heat waves and severe flooding, the report said.