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On November 4–7, 2024, the 21st Annual Meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club on the topic: “Lasting Peace on What Basis? Common Security and Equal Opportunities for Development in the 21st Century”.

On November 4, 2024, Alexander Lomanov, Deputy Director of IMEMO, Professor of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Dr. of Science (History), spoke at the session “Understanding Civilization in the 21st Century? Symphony Instead of Confrontation” with the report ‘Russia and China: State-Civilization in a Changing World’.

The idea of “conflict of civilizations” that appeared in the West at the end of the 20th century does not answer the question of what kind of civilizational dialogue should be within the "global majority". The interest of the major powers of the modern world to the problem of civilization is not accidental. The Russian concept of a “distinctive state-civilization” appeared together with the proclamation at the level of the Chinese leadership of a set of fundamental “outstanding features of Chinese civilization”. It is not only about the preservation of national tradition, but also about the innovative adaptation of its own civilization to global challenges.

On November 6, 2024, Academician Alexander Dynkin, President of IMEMO, moderated the session “Habitat: Shared by Everyone, Each”.

Everyone has heard about environmental degradation, and the problems associated with it reflect the problems of the green transition. This transition is far from the first, but it has big differences:

Previously, the driver of the energy transition was the energy efficiency of energy carriers. The energy flux density of oil and gas is tens and hundreds of times higher than that of solar and wind energy. Renewable energy sources have an uneven pattern of generation.

In the past, the substituted energy source did not leave the energy balance, it just lost its leading position. Now there is a tendency to completely stop carbon dioxide emissions, i. e. natural fossil fuels. This is leading to a growing bubble in the realization of sustainable development goals. 

The task of careful attitude to nature is expressed in an overly optimistic attitude towards the green energy transition and inflated plans for the transition to renewable energy sources, in the unjustified capitalization of ESG companies. The green transition is now driven more by ideological and political goals than by economic benefits and energy efficiency. In the West, they hope that the green transition is the basis of a social contract that will replace the social contract of the “welfare society”. From the point of view of developing countries, the situation is unacceptable, as the green transition represents a transition to neocolonialism.