地学前缘 ›› 2025, Vol. 32 ›› Issue (1): 459-465.DOI: 10.13745/j.esf.sf.2024.12.37

• 非主题来稿选登 • 上一篇    下一篇

Future China-Africa research collaboration in geoscience: Challenges and opportunities

Michael H. STEPHENSON1(), Hassina MOURI2(), Gbenga OKUNLOLA3(), 程丽4(), 王猛5, 赵宇6, 顾立平7, 王成善6,8,*()   

  1. 1.深时数字地球国际大科学计划管理委员会, 诺丁汉 NG12 5HU
    2.约翰内斯堡大学, 约翰内斯堡 2006
    3.伊巴丹大学, 伊巴丹 200005
    4.中国地质大学(北京)期刊中心, 北京 100083
    5.中国科学院新疆生态与地理研究所, 新疆 乌鲁木齐 830011
    6.中国地质大学(北京)地球科学与资源学院, 北京 100083
    7.中国科学院文献情报中心, 北京 100190
    8.中国地质大学(北京)生物地质与环境地质国家重点实验室, 北京 100083
  • 收稿日期:2024-11-29 修回日期:2024-12-15 出版日期:2025-01-25 发布日期:2025-01-15
  • 通信作者: *王成善,男,教授,中国科学院院士,主要从事深时古气候学等方面研究,深时数字地球国际大科学计划(Deep-time Digital Earth, DDE)发起人和执行委员会主席。E-mail: chshwang@cugb.edu.cn
  • 作者简介:Michael H. STEPHENSON,男,教授,主要从事能源和地质科学研究,深时数字地球国际大科学计划(Deep-time Digital Earth, DDE)管理委员会创始主席。E-mail: mikepalyno@me.com
    第一联系人：

    Hassina MOURI,女,教授,现任国际地质科学联合会(International Union of Geological Sciences, IUGS)主席,主要从事医学地质学、变质岩石学等方面的研究。E-mail: hmouri@uj.ac.za; Gbenga OKUNLOLA,男,教授,现任非洲地质学会(The Geological Society of Africa, GSAf)主席,主要从事地质调查、矿产勘探、矿产资源评估和开发等方面的研究。E-mail: gbengaokunlola@yahoo.co.uk; 程 丽,女,工学博士,主要从事地学期刊出版、科学计量学与开放科学研究。E-mail: lcheng@cugb.edu.cn

  • 基金资助:
    深时数字地球国际大科学计划DDE Scholar Report实施开发项目(HT202206LOz47)

Future China-Africa research collaboration in geoscience: Challenges and opportunities

Michael H. STEPHENSON1(), Hassina MOURI2(), Gbenga OKUNLOLA3(), CHENG Li4(), WANG Meng5, ZHAO Yu6, GU Liping7, WANG Chengshan6,8,*()   

  1. 1. Deep-time Digital Earth, Nottingham NG12 5HU, UK
    2. University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg 2006, South Africa
    3. University of Ibadan, Ibadan 200005, Nigeria
    4. Journal Center, China University of Geosciences (Beijing), Beijing 100083, China
    5. Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, ürümqi 830011, China
    6. School of Earth Sciences and Resources, China University of Geosciences (Beijing), Beijing 100083, China
    7. National Science Library, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
    8. State Key Laboratory of Biogeology and Environmental Geology, China University of Geosciences (Beijing), Beijing 100083, China
  • Received:2024-11-29 Revised:2024-12-15 Online:2025-01-25 Published:2025-01-15

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摘要：

二十国集团领导人第十九次峰会(2024 G20峰会)于2024年11月在巴西里约热内卢举行,中国推动了应对气候变化、生物多样性丧失和环境污染的可持续解决方案议题。这一努力是对2016年G20杭州峰会主题的继承与发展,当时中国首次将发展置于G20宏观经济政策协调的核心位置,采纳了关于联合国2030年可持续发展议程的G20行动计划以及支持非洲和最不发达国家工业化的G20倡议。在巴西峰会上,习近平宣布了未来3年同非洲携手推进现代化的十大伙伴行动,并为此提供3600亿元人民币额度的资金支持。文章分析了地学研究和实践在可持续发展中的潜在作用,特别是在可持续利用自然资源、预防气候变化以及减轻地质灾害及其健康影响等方面,指出了中国在非洲地学研究的优势和需要更多努力的领域。尽管中国是全球科学论文的主要发表国,但其对非洲(全球增长最快的经济区域之一)地学的贡献相对较小,且与非洲的研究优先事项不完全一致。非洲地学研究的优先事项中,尚未得到实质性解决的领域包括可持续的矿产和碳氢化合物开发、水文学和水文地质学、气候变化及其适应能力、自然灾害、医学地质学、农业矿物学以及地学教育和培训。作为关键矿产富集区,非洲国家具有特别的机遇,关键矿产是能源转型,特别是电动汽车电池所需的矿产资源,如稀土元素和铂族金属。多项研究强调,非洲需要建立专业机构来规划这些宝贵资源的利用,理解其价值以及开采这些资源的经济性和可持续性,鼓励当地企业,吸引投资,并仔细审查潜在国际投资者的提案,以获得最佳交易。目前,中国主导的地球科学发展的一个优势研究包括深时数字地球(DDE)计划在线计算平台及其与之江实验室合作开发的人工智能工具GeoGPT。这些项目的开发得到了强有力的资金支持,以实现免费和广泛的全球准入,特别关注非洲。这些先进的工具将有助于将发展的主动权完全交给非洲科学家和机构。本文针对未来中非在地球科学领域的合作提出以下建议:首先,中国主导的非洲地学研究应该采取更加协调和战略性的方法;其次,实施以非洲为中心的地学资助计划,聚焦与非洲相关的主题,如关键矿产勘探及其他地质资源、原材料和开采对人口与生态系统的健康影响,以及气候变化及其适应能力;最后,继续支持深时数字地球平台,支持中国主导的旨在增加非洲地球科学研究人员专业机构化和能力提升的国际倡议。

关键词: 开放科学, 可持续发展, 数字赋能, 中非地学合作, 深时数字地球大科学计划

Abstract:

At the 19th G20 Summit in Brazil in November 2024, China promoted the development of sustainable solutions to climate change, biodiversity loss, and environmental pollution. This continued the theme of the 2016 G20 Hangzhou Summit, at which China placed development at the center of the G20’s macroeconomic policy coordination for the first time, adopting the G20 Action Plan on the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the G20 Initiative on Supporting Industrialization in Africa and Least Developed Countries. In Brazil, China announced actions on advancing modernization in Africa over the next three years with a Chinese commitment of RMB360 billion yuan in financial support. In this article, we examine the potential role of geoscience research and practice in development, particularly in the sustainable use of natural resources, the prevention of climate change impacts, as well as mitigation of geo-hazards and their health implications, indicating the areas where China’s geoscience for Africa is strong and where it requires more effort.

We find that although China is the world’s leading publisher of scientific papers, its contribution to geoscience in Africa (the globe’s fastest-growing economic area), as shown by bibliometric research, appears to be rather small and inconsistent with the research priorities of Africa.

Amongst the priorities for geoscience research in Africa, which are not addressed substantially by the research conducted so far, are sustainable mineral and hydrocarbon development, hydrology and hydrogeology, climate change and resilience, natural hazards, medical geology,agrominerals, and geoscience education and training. A particular opportunity for African nations is the presence of critical minerals -minerals needed for the energy transition and for batteries for electric cars in particular. Africa is well-endowed with many of these critical materials, such as rare earth elements and platinum group metals. Several research groups stress the need for the agency on the part of African institutions to map out these valuable resources, understand their value and the economics and sustainability of their extraction, encourage local business, attract investment, and scrutinize proposals from potential international investors to get the best deals.

A strong point of existing China-led geoscience development includes the Deep-time Digital Earth (DDE) program online computing platform and its artificial intelligence tool GeoGPT, which is being developed in partnership with Zhejiang Laboratory. These are being developed with strong China funding support for free and wide global access, with a particular focus on Africa. These advanced tools will help to place the agency of development squarely in the hands of African scientists and institutions.

In summary, the following are recommended: (1) a more coordinated and strategic approach to China-led geoscience research in Africa; (2) an Africa-centered, geoscience funding initiative that concentrates on relevant topics to the continent such as critical minerals exploration and other geological resources, materials and processes and their health implications on the populations and ecosystems in general, as well as climate change and climate change resilience; and (3) continued support for China-led international initiatives that seek to increase the agency and capacity of Africa geoscience researchers, for example the Deep-time Digital Earth platform.

Key words: open science, sustainable development, digital empowerment, China-Africa geo-collaboration, Deep-Time Digital Earth

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