Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has launched a research centre to use and share earth observation data to help the world meet the United Nations Global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Chinese President sent a congratulatory letter for the launch, urging all sides to strengthen cooperation and contribute to the UN SDG 2030 and establish a community with a shared future for mankind. The research centre helps China fulfil the promise made to the 75th session of the UN General Assembly last year.
The big data research centre will pool information from satellites, aircraft, drones, and ground arrays and sensors on issues like environmental commons, urban and rural-urban fringe development, food security, and energy decarbonisation.
We will establish monitoring and evaluation systems for these goals, and share collected data with relevant UN organisations and developing countries.
– Director, International Research Center of Big Data for Sustainable Development Goals
The UN has attached great importance to the collection and sharing of such data. UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme supported CAS for working together with others to bridge the data gaps for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and to improve the effectiveness in using environmental data.
Environment-related data and indicators at all fingertips are critical so that people can understand which of their actions are improving the environment and which are deteriorating it further. Investing in big data for the environment is no longer an option, but an absolute necessity.
Former assistant director-general for Natural Sciences at UNESCO praised that the centre has an international vision. The centre will be contributing to a workforce worldwide that knows how to work across disciplinary boundaries and to work across the national boundaries to come with some solutions for the common problems.
Chinese researchers have promised to overcome challenges like lack of data, insufficient research, and uneven progress in implementation. CBAS Director said that As long as human beings exist, we always face the challenge of how to maintain sustainable development. Hence, applying big data to understand and to promote research on the subject is our eternal task. The research centre will provide critical support in the form of knowledge, expertise, and technical means and this is to help achieve a balanced and sustainable development in step with the UN goals.
According to an article, the Chinese government has issued a Three Year Plan for new data centres, demanding that new facilities become more efficient. The Three-year Action Plan for the Development of New Data Centers (2021-2023) also limits the growth of data centres to 20% and sets out a national architecture supporting national cloud hubs, provincial data centres, and Edge data centres.
As reported by OpenGov Asia, China has been active lately in passing several new laws and regulations relating to data privacy and security. The two recent laws which tend to focus more on those handling data national security and/or public interest are Critical Information Infrastructure or Important Data.
China passed the Data Security Law (DSL). The key focus of the DSL is the protection and security of critical data relating to national security and the public interest. The most significant element of the law is the so-called data classification system whereby the government will classify different types of data based on its level of importance and then publish a protection/security standard for each class of data.
The nation has released the Security Protection Regulations on Critical Information Infrastructure (CII Regulation). The CII Regulation is an implementing rule of the Cybersecurity Law (CSL). It applies only to Critical Information Infrastructure (CI”), which refers to the network and IT system that is critical to national security and public interest but may also have implications for companies that supply or service such networks and systems.
