On 29–30 October 2026, the 3rd Science for Future Conference, co-hosted by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, was held in Beijing. Experts, scholars, and young student representatives from universities and research institutions in China and Germany attended the conference and conducted in-depth interdisciplinary exchanges and discussions in the health and environment fields. Following the opening ceremony and plenary lectures, the conference featured five sessions on Human and Public Health, AI as a new research tool for Health and Environment issues, Environmental Impacts, Economic Dimensions, and Political Awareness. Prof. Linxiu Zhang, Director of UNEP-IEMP, was invited to attend the conference and delivered a topical lecture at the Economic Dimensions session on the morning of 30 October 2026.
Prof. Zhang’s lecture was titled “From Growth to Development Towards Sustainability: Some Reflections on Agricultural Economic Research.” The lecture began with a brief introduction of China’s “development miracle” from the perspective of rural employment. Yet rapid development has also imposed considerable pressure on the environment and ecosystems, raising the question of how agricultural economic research should measure progress. Ms. Zhang pointed out that the triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution are deeply intertwined and pose great challenges to agricultural and food systems and responding to these crises requires promoting a fundamental transformation of the global development paradigm and establishing a healthy relationship with nature for a sustainable future. To this end, based on the work carried out by UNEP-IEMP in recent years, she introduced three empirical studies that provide evidence on how integrated interventions can generate synergies for human health, the environment, and rural livelihoods. Overall, these cases demonstrate that agricultural economic research must move beyond growth-centered metrics and contribute to a development paradigm that safeguards both human health and nature. At last, she once again emphasized the importance of systems thinking and nexus approach and called for strengthened multidisciplinary collaborative responses to turn the interlinkages between climate change and health into a shared agenda for sustainable development.
Director Linxiu Zhang delivered a topical lecture
During the conference, Ms. Zhang listened carefully to other lectures and actively raised questions and exchanged views with participants, contributing to the success of the conference while expanding UNEP-IEMP’s continuing influence in research and action on global challenges and sustainable development issues.
