As the world gathered for COP28, the largest-ever UN climate summit, in Dubai this month to assess progress and address challenges, Tencent made our debut as a key player to show how digital technology can play a major role in tackling the climate crisis. We unveiled a global digital hub for climate action and joined critical discussions about how tech innovation and collaboration can help us achieve a greener future.

Tencent Launches TanLIVE Globally

Together with Masdar City and Catalyst, fellow anchor partners of Innovate for Climate Tech—a coalition of like-minded climate actors committed to driving global climate technology ecosystems, facilitated by the COP28 Presidency—Tencent globally launched its TanLIVE climate community platform on December 1. An online platform, TanLIVE serves as a dynamic digital hub for climate action, offering a suite of collaborative tools for organizations, entrepreneurs, investors, and others working on climate solutions. These tools include community networking, project listings, and access to a digital ecosystem of technology and financial solutions, enabled by Tencent Survey, Tencent Beacon analytics tool and WeTest.

The launch event took place during the inaugural Business & Philanthropy Climate Forum, COP28’s private-sector engagement platform. Within the forum, Dr. Hao Xu, Tencent's Vice President of Sustainable Social Value and Head of Tencent’s Carbon Neutrality Lab, participated in a panel discussion—Accelerating the Green Tech Transition. Alongside counterparts from other tech giants such as Amazon and Microsoft, Dr. Xu shared valuable insights on how digitalization can expedite progress toward achieving net-zero emissions.

Innovate for Climate Tech’s investment partner, Investcorp, announced the launch of a $750 million climate fund at the event. Investcorp will tap into the coalition’s knowledge base and leverage its networking opportunities. Dr. Hao Xu (sixth from right) represented Tencent.

"We’re really optimistic that advancements in digital and climate technologies, including carbon removal and CCUS, will play a pivotal role, especially for countries like China with substantial industrial bases, in facilitating a systematic transition toward a net-zero world," said Dr. Hao Xu.

Regarding Tencent’s efforts to advance carbon neutrality, Dr. Hao Xu said, "We’re not only trying to identify decarbonization solutions for our own endeavors, but also to explore how we can apply the insights gained from our experiences to other industries, amplifying our impact on a larger scale."

Dr. Hao Xu (third from right) joined a panel discussion on the green tech transition alongside C-suite leaders from Microsoft, Amazon, HSBC, Shell Foundation, BEEAH, and DCVC.

Tencent Participates in UNFCCC Presidency Event

During a panel organized by the COP28 Presidency in partnership with UNFCCC’s Technology Mechanism—Uniting for Climate Actions: Calling for International Technology and Innovation—Dr. Xu discussed Innovate for Climate Tech in greater detail. He focused on the coalition's efforts to narrow the divide between digitization and the adoption of low-carbon technologies by fostering innovation in the realm of climate change technologies.

Dr. Xu stressed the potential of the Innovate for Climate Tech coalition in shaping a genuinely global initiative, playing a crucial role in enhancing communication efficiencies to expedite innovation in low-carbon technology. Additionally, he highlighted its ability to bridge overarching strategies and aspirations in the fight against climate change with the grassroots efforts undertaken by many of the coalition members and startups it supports.

Dr. Hao Xu joined Collins Nzovu, Zambian Minister of Green Economy and Environment, Esteban Valenzuela, Chile’s Minister of Agriculture, and Thomas Guillot, CEO of the Global Cement and Concrete Association.

Tencent Co-Hosts Workshop in UN SDG Pavilion

Tencent further highlighted our commitment to carbon neutrality in a workshop we co-hosted in the UN SDG Pavilion with the Innovation Center for Energy and Transportation (ICET)—The Role of Digitalization in Accelerating Decarbonization and Meeting Climate Goals for China and Beyond. The workshop delved into how digital technology can help organizations and industries meet their climate goals, emphasizing its potential in both mitigating and adapting to climate change. It also underscored the crucial role of promoting, facilitating, and deploying climate technologies in advancing one of COP28's pivotal initiatives, the Presidency's urgent appeal for the swift development of solutions to speed up global decarbonization and maintain the target of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.  

Watch the replay of Tencent’s session in UN SDG Pavilion: YouTube

Tencent Engages in COP28 Side Events

Tencent capitalized on a number of opportunities at COP28 to not just elaborate on TanLIVE but also to engage in conversations about our other technological innovations aimed at addressing climate change. At side events, Tencent highlighted both our flagship Carbon X Program, which will promote the large-scale application of next-generation low-carbon technologies by 2030, and our various nature-based solutions that are helping to protect biodiversity and increase carbon storage. Moreover, Tencent shared its creative finance mechanism to support distributed solar projects in rural areas to benefit vulnerable groups.

In an exclusive discussion with Reuters Events, Dr. Xu expanded on this, emphasizing how cutting-edge technologies are critical to stopping further climate damage, boosting energy efficiency, and reversing existing effects. But he noted that the potential of technology to do all that has yet to be fully tapped. Part of this is because green technologies typically take longer to scale than other technologies. Tencent built TanLIVE to help solve this challenge, aiming to help bring innovative climate technologies to market faster than before by uniting all stakeholders in collaborative efforts.

Indeed, collaboration emerged as a key theme. Dr. Xu stressed the role of consumers as influential drivers in the transition to a low-carbon future. He discussed how Tencent's diverse carbon-neutrality initiatives, like the educational game Carbon Island and the Weixin mini program Go Green Together, aim to raise awareness of critical environmental issues and promote sustainable lifestyles. They tap the power of digital capabilities to improve industry efficiency and hasten the implementation of emerging low-carbon technologies.

As for Tencent’s own pathway to carbon neutrality, Dr. Xu communicated Tencent’s commitment to reaching net-zero emissions across our operations and supply chain by 2030, when we plan to be powered 100 percent by green energy.

Sharing his hopes for the outcomes of COP28 climate discussions, Dr. Xu expressed optimism about the possibility of a worldwide consensus and commitment to effectively address the climate crisis: "I'm hopeful that in the upcoming COPs, we will witness increasingly positive surprises in technology advancements and in the commitments made by everyone. It's essential for us to remain optimistic in order to actively propel the climate agenda forward."