Background: The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs has predicted that by 2050, the global urban population will increase by 2.5 billion. China’s population will increase by 255 million during the same period. With rapidly increasing urbanization, countries especially the BRI countries are facing challenges providing basic services such as housing, transportation, energy and infrastructure, employment, education and health care. The key to achieving sustainable urban development depends on how to transform the traditional urbanization supported by fossil energy. Green urbanization has emerged as a global consensus with deployment of green technologies, big data, artificial intelligence and other important drivers. This forum proposes to address the following issues: