On 22 April 2026, the Shanghai Climate Week 2026 Opening Closed-door Roundtable got under way. Shanghai Climate Week is an influential platform for high-level exchange and industry collaboration on climate in China, focused on coordinated global climate governance, the practical delivery of sustainability industries and cross-border cooperation on the low-carbon transition, and it brings together resources from across the sector to build high-level dialogue. Held at the very start of Shanghai Climate Week 2026, the closed-door roundtable gathered representatives from multilateral financial institutions, industry, climate finance, standards and certification, compliance, NGOs and the international innovation ecosystem for in-depth, candid and practical discussions on three topics: "The Global South Going Global", "ESG Compliance and Value Creation" and "AI and Green Technology". Using the small-group format for high-quality dialogue, the roundtable aimed to shape the "Shanghai Climate Week Service Ecosystem", foster concrete cooperation across institutions and regions, and help low-carbon projects deliver results.
Photo: Group photo of the guests at the opening closed-door roundtable
As a company working across climate tech enablement and sustainability solutions, WeCarbon's management team helped organise and took an active part in the full programme of the Shanghai Climate Week 2026 opening closed-door roundtable. Ms. Remoca Shi, Deputy Secretary-General of the Shanghai Climate Week Executive Committee and Founder of WeCarbon, moderated the roundtable together with Mr. Yang Jun, Founding Board Member of the Shanghai Pudong Prosperity Alliance Climate Week Research Institute. WeCarbon Founder Mr. Eric Ma represented WeCarbon in the discussion on "AI and Green Technology".
Photo: Ms. Remoca Shi and Mr. Yang Jun moderating the roundtable
The roundtable was organised around three core topics. Drawing on their deep industry experience and real-world cases, participants from different fields shared insights from their professional perspectives, building consensus and practical ideas for the global low-carbon transition, sustainable international expansion of companies and the scaling of green technologies.
Photo: The closed-door roundtable
Topic 1: The Global South – from "Market Entry" to "Impact at Scale"
The Global South holds great potential as a growth market for climate investment and finance, yet it is also where the "last mile" challenges of delivering climate projects are concentrated: market potential and practical obstacles go hand in hand. The roundtable opened with this topic, aiming to identify the bottlenecks in delivering low-carbon projects in the Global South, clarify the logic of climate investment and finance in the region, break down the barriers between capital, industry, risk management and platforms, and move the sector from one-off, scattered market entry towards models that are scalable, replicable and sustainable over the long term. Representatives from various fields shared on-the-ground insights and observations, building a broad picture of the climate industry in the Global South and practical pathways for delivery.
Topic 2: ESG – from Compliance to Value Creation
Over the past few years, ESG in China has advanced rapidly. What began as a purely external disclosure requirement has become a core management tool for internal governance and long-term planning, and a key support for Chinese companies expanding into global markets and building international competitiveness. The discussion on this topic aimed to help companies move beyond seeing ESG as a matter of compliance alone, uncover the industrial, financial and global value behind ESG transformation, and make ESG a real driver of high-quality, sustainable growth. Industry experts discussed in depth and mapped out the full range of pathways from basic compliance to value creation.
Topic 3: AI and Green Technology – from Pilots to Scaled Replication
The orderly flow and allocation of capital and sound corporate ESG governance underpin the global low-carbon transition, while the deployment and replication of AI and green low-carbon technologies are key to building low-carbon supply chains and achieving sustainability goals, and a lasting force for climate tech to transform industries. This topic was included to tackle the difficulty of moving AI and green technologies beyond pilots and replicating them, and to help promising green technologies go beyond single demonstration projects towards industrial-scale, cross-regional deployment. Representatives from industry and the innovation sector shared their latest practical experience, laying the groundwork for cooperation on scaling green technology.
Photo: Mr. Eric Ma sharing his views at the roundtable
Photo: Experts taking an active part in the roundtable discussion
Going forward, WeCarbon will continue to build on the Shanghai Climate Week platform and stay focused on climate tech innovation. It will keep taking part in year-round coordinated global climate action and local low-carbon innovation, and deepen its R&D and cross-border cooperation in AI climate tech, ESG management and low-carbon supply chains. With its technical expertise and years of industry experience, WeCarbon will support a coordinated, high-quality global green transition and help build a connected, shared system of global climate governance.