Kick-off Meeting of the NSSFC Major Project 'Research on the Impact of Climate Change on the Security and Social Governance of Major Cities and Corresponding Countermeasures' Successfully Held

　　On March 16th, the Kick-off Meeting of the major project of the National Social Science Fund of China (hereafter called NSSFC) titled "Research on the Impact of Climate Change on the Security and Social Governance of Major Cities and Corresponding Countermeasures" was held at the Weijin Road Campus of Tianjin University (hereafter called TJU). More than 30 experts and scholars from relevant departments such as the Publicity Department of Tianjin Municipal Committee, Tianjin Municipal Commission of Urban Management, the China Meteorological Administration, as well as universities and research institutes including Peking University, Fudan University, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Nankai University, Tianjin University, Central South University, Capital Normal University, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hainan University, the Beijing Urban Meteorological Research Institute, Fujian Normal University, and North China Electric Power University attended the meeting. The opening ceremony was presided over by Liu Jun-qing, deputy director of the Division of Humanities and Social Sciences of TJU.

　　Professor Zhang Jun-yan, member of the Standing Committee of the TJU Party Committee, director of the United Front Work Department, and director of the Division of Humanities and Social Sciences, extended a warm welcome to the experts and leaders on behalf of TJU. She introduced the basic situation of the university and the vigorous development of its liberal arts in recent years, encouraging the project team to explore and innovate boldly and provide theoretical support and practical solutions for optimizing urban governance systems. Zhang Long-fei, deputy director of the Publicity Department of Tianjin Municipal Committee, emphasized that the project should strengthen political guidance, closely follow Xi Jin-ping's thought on ecological civilization and the overall national security concept, and incorporate climate change into the urban safety governance system. He also stated that the Tianjin Municipal Social Science Work Office would provide comprehensive support for the project implementation through policy guarantees, resource matching, and achievement transformation mechanisms. Lin Jin-tai, member of the Party Leadership Group and deputy director of Tianjin Municipal Commission of Urban Management, congratulated the project on its launch. He pointed out that climate change has become a non-traditional threat facing all of humanity, and as a megacity, Tianjin urgently needs to explore climate-resilient urban governance paths. He indicated that the Commission of Urban Management would fully support data and scenario guarantees. Professor Jia Ning, vice dean of the College of Management and Economics (hereafter called CoME) of TJU, thanked the attending experts for their support, affirmed the project team's research work in serving the country's major strategic needs, and expressed expectations for the team's future work.

　　The opening symposium was chaired by Professor Wang Pu-qu, dean of the Institute of National Governance Studies at Peking University and convener of the Political Science Discipline Evaluation Group of the Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council, who served as the leader of the expert panel. The panel also included Professor Xu Xiao-lin, founding dean of the School of Public Administration of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Professor Wang Luo-zhong, member of the Standing Committee of the Capital Normal University Party Committee and vice president, and Professor Liu Yin-xi, director of the Digital Government and Data Governance Research Center of the Zhou Enlai School of Government of Nankai University.

　　Professor Li Lei of TJU, the chief expert of the project, first made a report on behalf of the project team from six aspects: the basis for topic selection, research objects, research ideas and design, technical routes, key points and innovations, and research progress. He also introduced the current progress and preparatory work. Researcher Miao Shi-guang, director of the Beijing Urban Meteorological Research Institute, stated that the China Meteorological Administration and the Beijing Urban Meteorological Research Institute, as cooperating units, would deeply participate in this project in terms of urban meteorological observation and other aspects and would do a good job in the transformation and application of project achievements in urban planning and other fields. The leaders of each sub-project also reported on the implementation plans and schemes of their respective sub-projects.

　　The expert panel of the opening symposium actively reviewed the project from different angles such as the value of the topic, the design of the research process, and the implementation plan of the project. The attending experts unanimously believed that the project topic, starting from a series of important statements by General Secretary Xi Jin-ping, has significant theoretical value and practical significance and accurately responds to national development strategies and urban governance needs. The project research focuses on the systematic impact of climate change on the safety of large cities, which not only responds to the common challenges of global climate governance but also highlights the unique path of governance in large cities in China, providing important theoretical support for building a climate-resilient social governance system. The expert panel highly evaluated the interdisciplinary innovation characteristics of the project and pointed out that its successful establishment fully reflects the project team's profound research accumulation and interdisciplinary collaboration advantages in the fields of climate change and urban governance. The expert panel also conducted in-depth discussions around the research content and put forward many constructive insights for the project implementation, expecting the project team to take this major research project as an opportunity to solve the problem of climate adaptive governance in large cities through in-depth multidisciplinary integration and contribute Chinese wisdom to global climate governance.

　　Finally, on behalf of the project team and the organizing committee, Professor Li Lei, the chief expert of the project, once again expressed sincere gratitude to the attending experts and stated that the team would seriously consider and absorb the valuable opinions put forward by the experts, work together with the cooperating units and project team members, and implement the research work of the project well. At this point, the launching ceremony of the NSSFC major project of "Research on the Impact of Climate Change on the Security and Social Governance of Major Cities and Corresponding Countermeasures" successfully concluded.