With joint efforts of UNEP and Tongji University, and with the support of Hanns Seidel Foundation (HSF), the 2015 Asia-Pacific Leadership Programme on Environment for Sustainable Development (APLP) under the theme of ‘Urbanization in the context of Sustainable Development’ was successfully inaugurated on 21 September at the UNEP-Tongji Institute of Environment for Sustainable Development (IESD). 28 participants and 2 observers from 10 countries have participated in the programme this year.

At the opening ceremony, Prof. Wu Jiang, Vice President of Tongji University delivered the welcome remarks, appreciated the continuous support from the Asia-Pacific Regional University Consortium during the past 11 years and shared Tongji’s great efforts in building itself into a sustainability-oriented university. Mr. Mahesh Pradhan, Chief of Environmental Education and Training Unit (ETTU) of UNEP, as well as Ms. Nila Puspita, Program Coordinator from HSF, welcomed the participants and resource persons and highlighted the significance of the APLP. Prof. Li Fengting made a presentation and introduced the experience of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in Tongji, which attracted great interest among the participants.

During the rest of the week, experts from UNEP, United Nations University, Yale University, University of New South Wales, University of Wollongong, Griffith University, Asia Institute of Technology and Tongji University in the field of environment and sustainable development delivered lectures and interact with participants on the dimensions of human, environment, society and economy, illustrating the inter-relations among mind, body and soul in developing effective sustainability leaders in Asia and the Pacific, and will have a whole-day field trip focused on the urbanized theme.

This year is the 12nd year of the programme. So far, more than 300 emerging leaders from 42 countries and organizations have benefited from this annual leadership programme at IESD, of which more than 30 countries are from the Asia-Pacific. The leadership programme has also attracted participants from North America, Africa, Europe and who have shared experiences.