The implementation of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is a global consensus. However, the global pandemic unseen in a century coexists with climate change, and the global economic slowdown results in significant setbacks. The implementation of 2030 Agenda faces unprecedented challenges.

Scientific and technological innovations are important tools to support the implementation of sustainable development goals. The United Nations has setup a Technology Facilitation Mechanism to promote collaboration, foster partnerships and improve global accessibility to science and technology in order to facilitate our efforts towards sustainable development.

Big data, as an important content of digital technology has provided us with new opportunities to integrate vast quantities of information related to land, ocean, atmosphere, and human activities together for a more comprehensive analysis and better understanding of the complex interactions between earth systems. These technologies are pivotal to ensure rapid progress towards sustainable development goals.

On September 6, 2021, the International Research Center of Big Data for Sustainable Development Goals (CBAS) was officially established in Beijing. And this center successfully organized the 1st International Forum on Big Data for Sustainable Development Goals (FBAS). President Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory letter to the inauguration ceremony of the research center and the opening ceremony of the forum, expressing his hope that people and organizations around the world may take full advantage of the new center and the forum to work together on developing big data in support of 2030 UN agenda. On the same occasion, the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed his hope in his congratulatory video message that this center would make great contribution to the United Nations big data global platform. Nearly a thousand experts from 61 countries and regions conducted in-depth academic exchanges at the 1st FBAS forum on use of big data to facilitate actions towards sustainable development goals.

The 2022 International Forum on Big Data for Sustainable Development Goals (FBAS 2022) will be held in Beijing, China in September. The theme of this forum is “Digital Technology Empowers Global Sustainable Development”. There will be systematic discussions centering on emerging technology solutions to the implementation of the sustainable development goals, for instance, the digital technology represented by big data, and global partnerships to drive technological innovation. We aim to promote the sharing of methods, technologies, and cases of big data and digital technology in support of sustainable development, and provide a global high-level academic communication platform on the use of technology facilitation mechanism to achieve the sustainable development goals.

The United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which were inaugurated in September 2015, will reach its midpoint at the end of this year. The remaining half of the journey has become increasingly important. On behalf of FBAS 2022, I wholeheartedly invite the international community to assemble here to discuss theories, technologies, methods, and applications for the use of big data in the implementation of sustainable development goals, looking to the remaining half of the journey, and together envisaging the beautiful future of mankind.

GUO Huadong

Chair

2022 International Forum on Big Data for Sustainable Development Goals