The 2023 Applied Energy Symposium: Clean Energy towards carbon neutrality (CEN2023) successfully opened at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China (UNNC) on 22 April 2023.

Representatives from governmental bodies, academicians and experts, and scholars from all over the world were present forthe opening ceremony of the four-day symposium.

The symposium is organised by Applied Energy, Advances in Applied Energy and the Applied Energy Innovation Institute (AEii), and jointly hosted by Nottingham Ningbo China Beacons of Excellence Research and Innovation Institute, UNNC Faculty of Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University and the Professional Committee of Environment and Heat Utilization, China Society for Environmental Sciences, with the support from Ningbo Association for Science and Technology. It is chaired by Professor Tao Wu, UNNC Vice Provost for China Beacons Institute, Dean of Faculty of Science and Engineering, Academician Xiang Gao from the School of Energy Engineering, Zhejiang University, and Professor Jinyue Yan, Editor-in-Chief of Advances in Applied Energy, Chair Professor of Energy and Buildings, Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

Professor Tao Wu and Professor Jinyue Yan, co-chairs of the Symposium, delivered speeches welcoming experts and scholars from home and abroad to beautiful Ningbo to discuss cutting-edge topics in the fields of carbon neutrality and clean energy. Professor Wu mentioned that it is our common goal to address these key challenges that brings us together. The conference opening coincides with Earth Day 2023, and it is hoped that the conference will provide an international platform to work together and tackle the world's biggest environmental challenge of the 21st century.

Ms Ying Shi, Vice President of Ningbo Association for Science and Technology, attended the opening ceremony. She said in recent years the University of Nottingham Ningbo China has taken the lead in organising many international conferences related to carbon neutrality. Clean energy is also one of the priority areas of the university's research and knowledge exchange. She highly praised the research achievements of the University supporting China’s dual carbon goals. She believes the CEN2023 symposium will provide an international perspective and propose practical measures to further support those goals.

In the four-day symposium, seven world-renown scholars, including Professor Shan-Tung Tu, Academician and Chair Professor of Mechanical Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Professor Wei Wei, Vice President of Shanghai Advanced Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Professor Jianzhong Wu, Professor of Multi-Vector Energy Systems and Head of School of Engineering at Cardiff University, Professor Xiaolei Fan from China Beacons Institution, UNNC, Professor Zhongwei Chen, Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering, Professor Martin Blunt FREng from Imperial College London, and Professor Colin Snape FRSE, University of Nottingham, UK have been invited to give keynote speeches. They will showcase their latest research in the field of low carbon, clean energy.