Shenzhen was awarded "excellence" prize last week among more than 80 Chinese and European cities as well as enterprises for its contribution in promoting development of green and smart cities and Euro-China cooperation in the field.

The Euro-China Green & Smart City Awards, initiated by Foundation Prospective & Innovation (FPI) in France and China Center for Urban Development (CCUD) last year, were set up to award those Chinese and European cities as well as enterprises who have made outstanding achievements in green and smart development.

Twelve Chinese cities and enterprises and 22 from Europe were honored this year. The awards also include "technological innovation" prize, "industry promotion" prize, "Euro-China star enterprise" prize, etc.

The award ceremony, part of the 2016 Euro-China Green & Smart City Summit, was held in Shenzhen from December 9 to 10, during which FPI and CCUD also launched a Euro-China Green & Smart City Three-Year (2017-2020) Action Plan.

According to the plan, China and Europe will strengthen cooperation in developing green and smart cities by setting up a special fund, organizing visits for Chinese and European enterprises to make exchanges, building a talents team to cultivate more professionals and so forth.

"China and Europe have a lot to share in developing green and smart cities, for example, how to use green and smart development to solve climate change problem," said Feng Kui, a researcher at CCUD.

Jean-Pierre Raffarin, former French prime minister and chairman of FPI, said the launch of the action plan is meaningful. It shows the two sides have reached a consensus on how to make efforts under Paris climate accords, he said.