On 10–11 February 2025, the Japan RCE Youth Meeting 2025 was held in Kitakyushu City, Japan on the theme “From Local to Global: Kitakyushu’s Global ESD”. Bringing together 23 youth members from five Regional Centers of Expertise (RCE) on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), it highlighted how local sustainability initiatives can contribute to addressing global challenges.
The meeting commenced with a card game developed by the Kitakyushu My Earth Project, engaging participants in learning about climate change and ESD in an informal way. Miki Konishi (Project Coordinator, UNU-IAS) shared key activities of the Global RCE Network in 2025. Tokie Izaki (Deputy Director of Environmental Education, Ministry of the Environment, Japan) presented national policies and initiatives for promoting ESD. Kitakyushu City representatives discussed measures to address the city's pollution-related challenges through collective action of citizens, local government and the business sector.
A tour of the Kitakyushu Environment Museum and field visits provided additional context on the city's multi-stakeholder initiatives on biodiversity conservation and environmental pollution. Group discussions examined these initiatives and envisioned how local solutions can help advance ESD to achieve the SDGs.
Participants documented the field visits with short videos and insights shared on social media to promote the use of online tools and platforms for disseminating ESD knowledge among Japan RCE youth members. The event concluded with presentations reflecting on the findings and outputs of the meeting activities.
The meeting was organized by RCE Kitakyushu Youth in collaboration with UNU-IAS.
