In his speech, Mr. Solheim narrated the environmental issues caused by the rapid economic development and urbanization and suggested on four solutions to cope with the issues: establishing new moral change, cultivating political leadership, developing market-based environmental technology and encouraging citizen initiatives. He particularly mentioned that education is the fundamental approach to change the way of thinking and the effective pathway to cultivate political leadership. Taking the green finance technology Ant Financial as an example, he explained the importance of innovation market-based demand and emphasized the significance of green finance with the currently being held G20 Summit. Meanwhile, citizenship participation is also an important way to deal with the environmental issues and to mainstream the concept of environment and sustainable development.

  Students had an active dialogue with MR. Solheim. Students from Bangladesh, Chile, South Africa, Malaysia and China raised their questions, making the atmosphere lively. In the end of the lecture, Executive Vice President of Tongji University Prof. Wu Jiang presented a live lecture photo to Mr. Solheim. Upon receiving the gift, Mr. Solheim was surprised by the speed of Tongji.

  After the lecture, Prof. Yang Xianjin and President of Tongji University Prof. Zhong Zhihua had a meeting with Mr. Solheim and exchanged ideas on strengthening the collaboration between Tongji University and UNEP.

  Furthermore, IESD leaders briefed Mr. Solheim on IESD’s work progress. Since the establishment of IESD in 2002, IESD has provided environmental education for students from nearly 50 countries, and carried out capacity-building for nearly 5000 participants from developing countries through training programs, seminars and fora. Meanwhile, in cooperation with UNEP, China’s ministries and diversified stakeholders, IESD undertakes research projects, including UNEP-China-Africa Cooperation Program on Environment supported by Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST), Chongming Eco-Island Project, Green Economy Textbook, Multi-dimensional evaluation system on China’s low-carbon economy, , South-South Cooperation Case Studies, etc.