The opening ceremony of 2014 International Student Conference on Environment andSustainability (ISCES 2014) was held on 5th June, 2014, the World EnvironmentDay at Tongji University. ISCES 2014 was convened by the UNEP and TongjiUniversity, sponsored by Beijing Environment Foundation for Young Talents,Agricultural Bank of China, State Key Lab of Pollution Control and ResourceReuse, and organized by UNEP-Tongji Institute of Environment for SustainableDevelopment (IESD).

Thetopic of this year’s conference is “Ecological Civilization and GreenDevelopment”, which is in response to the theme of this year’s UN’s theme of WorldEnvironmental Day: Raise your voice, not the sea level and China’s theme of WorldEnvironmental Day: The Conference brought together around 400 students from 45countries. Students were divided into five subgroups, namely, SustainableEducation, Food and Health, Ecosystem and Climate Change, Green Development. Theywill engage in lectures, forum and field visits in the following five days andwork in groups to make a final presentation. During which they will betterunderstand and exchange views on the challenges and opportunities as well aspractices and theories of sustainable development.

At the opening ceremony, Prof. PEI Gang, President of Tongji University, Mr. KavehZahedi Director of UNEP Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, Mr. WangGuangtao, Former Minister of Housing and Urban-Rural Development of PRC and Directorof the Resources Conservation Committee of the 11th NPC, Mr. Chen Liangjie, Directorof Xinhua News Agency Shanghai Bureau, Mr. Jiang Ruibin, General Secretary,President, Agricultural Bank of China Shanghai Branch attended and deliveredspeeches.

On two high-level dialogues, Mr. Sheng Fulai of Head of the Research andPartnerships Unit of UNEP, Mr. Edward Clarence-Smith, Representative to Chinaof UNIDO, Mr. Percy Misika Representative to China of FAO, Prof. Xia Liping, ViceChairman of Shanghai UN Research Association, Dean of School of Political Science& International Relations of Tongji University talked about GreenDevelopment and UN agencies’ role in green development. And Prof. Wu Jiang, Vice President of TongjiUniversity, Ms. Chitra Hepburn, Head of Bayer Material Science’s StrategicPlanning and Intelligence Hub, Dr. Catherine Sozi, Country Director of UNAIDS, Prof.Shi Han, environmental policy professor of City University of Hong Kong, Ms.Liu Fangfei, China Central TV Station and Ms. Sun Haiyan, Chief Editor ofEco-nomy Magazine, made an interesting and intensive dialogue on education onsustainable development. A video of message of Mr. Achim Steiner, UNUnder-Secretary-General and UNEP Executive Director on the occasion of theWorld Environment Day was also shared on this occasion, and to welcome the 2014ISCES participants.

Meanwhile,Prof. WANG Guangtao, former Minister of Housing and Urban Rural Development ofthe PRC, Director of the Resources Conservation Committee of the 11th NPC andChairperson of the Advisory Board of IESD, Prof. Wu Jiang, Vice President ofTongji University presented awards for the winners of 2014 “Green Future Scholarship”for Best Papers, 2014 “Green Seedling Fund” for Excellent Research Proposalsand 2014 Klaus Toepfer Environmental Scholarship.