The sustainability of the countries along the "the Belt and Road" is important for realizing the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations. Promoting eco-environmental protection needs to balance with economic development and social inclusion.On November 15, 2022, the school of Environment and Ecology of Chongqing University (CQU) organized an international symposium entitled: “Water, Energy, Food and Ecosystem Security along the Belt and Road Countries”. The symposium was chaired by Dr. Zhongli Chen and held in a virtual formviazoom and Bilibili. The participants were from China, Germany, Egypt, Turkey and Pakistan.

Figure 1. Poster of the symposium

Prof. Yongchuan Yang, a vice Dean of the school of Environment and Ecology of CQU delivered an opening remarks.

Figure 2. The Vice Dean of School of Environment and Ecology, Prof. Yongchuan Yang (Middle) at the Opening Ceremony

Dr. Ahmad Aioub works at the Department of Plant Protection at the School of Agriculture, Zagatzik University, Egypt. At this meeting, he focused on the progress of plantain soil remediation and elucidated the gene expression related to the detoxification of cypermethrin in the model plant plantain, providing new insights for soil remediation technology.

Dr. Esraa Ammar from the Department of Botany at the Faculty of Science at Tanta University in Egypt. She is an expert in IUCN regional assessments. She combined climate characteristics with plant protection, introduced crops along the Nile River in Egypt, located in North Africa, and elaborated on the response of agricultural biodiversity in arid and semi-arid regions to climate change.

Prof. Yi Yang comes from the School of Environment and Ecology, Chongqing University. His main research directions include agricultural sustainability, climate mitigation and adaptation, and life cycle assessment modeling. During the symposium, he proposed new insights on how to reasonably manage and utilize abandoned agricultural land to mitigate climate change, and also provided new ideas for the sustainable development of agricultural irrigation under climate change.

Prof. Muhammad Aasim is from Sivas University of Science and Technology, Turkey. He is committed to the development and application of new technologies for phytoremediation of polluted water bodies. He shared phytoremediation measures based onin vitroregeneration technology of goldfish algae and examples of using tissue culture technology to effectively treat Cd and Pb polluted water bodies, in order to achieve the recycling and utilization of water resources.

Dr. Xiaowei Xu is from Chongqing University. He presented the regulation of rice soil reduction process by adding sulfate to achieve fixed arsenic migration in water, providing a new method for reducing the migration and transformation of heavy metals in soil.

Dr. Miaomiao Du is the leader of the Green Toxicology Research Group at the Environmental Research Institute of RWTH Aachen University in Germany. Her research is dedicated to environmental risk analysis and monitoring of conventional and renewable energy lifecycle processes, and provides toxicological support for risk monitoring and optimization of energy substances through toxicity assessment and prediction. She provided a systematic introduction to the environmental risk assessment of biofuel life cycle processes in this meeting.

Dr. Ahmad Mahmood is from the University of Arid Agriculture in Laval, Pakistan. He used to study for master and doctor's degree in Ankara University in Turkey and Yamanashi University in Japan, and he also exchanged and worked in Helmholtz Environmental Health Research Center in Munich, Germany and Technical University of Munich. His main focus includes the development and utilization of plant microbial synergistic remediation technology for soil contaminated with persistent organic pollutants. He provided us with cutting-edge technologies in interdisciplinary sustainable development and environmental management at this meeting.

The prosperity and development of countries along the Belt and Road is an important part of global sustainable development, and achieving sustainable development is the core task of global governance and building a community with a shared future for mankind. Global change, environmental pollution, and damage to ecosystem health have become the biggest challenges faced by human sustainable development. This meeting has established an international platform for the academic and industrial circles of the countries along the Belt and Road and concluded the cooperative ties of the countries along the Belt and Road.