The invention discloses Cu-Silicate-1 catalyst synthesis and application. Silica sol used as a silicon source, tetraalkyl ammonium bromide serving as a template agent and copper-ammonium solution serving as a copper source and an alkali source are adopted for synthesizing a Cu-Silicate-1 catalyst according to an in-situ synthesis method. Compared with a loading method for preparing the Cu-Silicate-1 catalyst, the in-situ synthesis method has the advantage of simplicity in preparation process. The Cu-Silicate-1 catalyst prepared according to the in-situ synthesis method is high in stability andactivity and is excellent in performance in reaction of dimethyl oxalate hydrogenation for preparing ethylene glycol, the dimethyl oxalate conversion rate is larger than 99%, the ethylene glycol selectivity is higher than 95%, and the overall selectivity of ethylene glycol and an intermediate product namely methyl glycolate is higher than 99%.