Supported by Ms. Zhao Shaohua, former Vice Minister of Culture, the exhibition was co-hosted by the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Shanghai Climate Week (SHCW), and organised by the Sino-International Entrepreneurs Federation (SIEF). WeCarbon was closely involved as a supporting organisation, and WeCarbon Founder Ms. Remoca Shi and Mr. Jiang Chenqi, member of the Shanghai Climate Week Youth Council, co-curated the exhibition.
Photo: The curatorial team of the Climate & Sustainability Photography Awards
The exhibition presented a careful selection of award-winning works from the 2024 and 2025 Climate & Sustainability Photography Awards, creating a visual dialogue across time, space and cultures in an international setting. Using photography as a distinctive medium and drawing on a range of creative practices, the exhibition explored how natural systems, urban development and social structures meet and interact under a "shared vision". The theme goes beyond geographical borders, pointing to a common global future shaped by climate change, resource circularity and urban transformation. Abu Dhabi, a strategic meeting point of land and sea, tradition and future, provided a distinctive narrative backdrop. The exhibition set out to turn sustainability from an abstract concept into a visible, tangible sensory experience, encouraging the public to reflect on and re-examine this global question.William Wang, Chief Representative for Asia Pacific of Shanghai Climate Week and Chief Representative for Middle East & Africa of the Sino-International Entrepreneurs Federation, said: "The Climate & Sustainability Photography Awards aim to harness the power of photography to raise public awareness of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), spark a wide global dialogue on ecological civilisation, and inspire young people to exchange and collaborate across borders."
Rabih El-Haddad, Director of the Division for Multilateral Diplomacy at UNITAR, emphasised in a speech: "Photography is not only a form of artistic expression, but also a universal language that transcends linguistic and geographical boundaries. The real scenes captured in images can convey meaning that statistics cannot carry, and communicate urgency with a force that policy documents can hardly match."
Photo: The "Shared Horizons — Symbiosis: Abu Dhabi Exhibition" photography exhibition
Beyond the exhibition content itself, the curatorial team also put sustainability into practice: the exhibition design and construction used environmentally friendly, recyclable materials, keeping form and content consistent. Ms. Remoca Shi noted: "The 2024 edition attracted more than 500 photographers from around the world, with total on-site and online audiences exceeding 100,000. The 2025 edition then grew substantially in scale, with both the number of entrants and brand exposure tripling, significantly raising the Awards' international profile."More than 30,000 visitors attended the exhibition, including senior representatives of governments and international organisations from around the world. Here, photography was more than artistic expression: it became a way for the public to engage with climate issues, prompting people to rethink the relationships between people and nature, and between cities and the future. For WeCarbon, taking part in and supporting the exhibition was not a one-off collaboration but part of an ongoing exploration of how diverse forms of expression can help more people see, understand and genuinely take part in climate action.