UNESCO Chair Newsletter July 2025

Welcome to the July 2025 edition of the York UNESCO Chair Newsletter!

Today is 1 July, so Happy Canada Day 🇨🇦 to our Canadian community!

As the UN High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) will convene in New York this month, global attention turns once again to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the urgent need for transformative societal change. Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) remains central to this agenda through empowering learners of all ages to shape more just, inclusive, and sustainable societies.

In this edition, we spotlight initiatives that reflect ESD’s far-reaching impact - from recent and upcoming events, publications, and other news - all contributing to reimagining education. The coming weeks offer moments for reflection during the summer break for many colleagues in the Global North. Then, the month of September will offer more events, projects, and partnerships. Please feel free to share this newsletter with your networks or invite others to subscribe and we invite you to stay connected.

Charles Hopkins & Katrin Kohl
UNESCO Chair in Reorienting Education towards Sustainability, York University

Congratulations to York University on another successful year in the Times Higher Education Impact Ranking! York’s consistent performance in the THE Impact Rankings underscores its commitment to the SDGs and the continuous progress that is being made in advancing global health, equity, education, and sustainable consumption through research, community engagement, and policy innovation.

During the Global Sustainable Development Congress in Istanbul (Türkiye), where this year's universities impact results were officially announced, York's UNESCO Chair Team Charles Hopkins and Katrin Kohl hosted "the track with the heart" on education, gender, and inequality. Thank you to all speakers and participants for building community with us throughout the four days of the #GSDCongress! ❤️💚💙

In preparation of the 2025 Times Higher Education Global Sustainable Development Congress in Istanbul (Türkiye), the UNESCO Chair team joined a global team of authors to create a joint policy report in collaboration with Times Higher Education, UNESCO, and Prince Sultan University (Saudi Arabia). The report highlights regional trends, institutional efforts, and persistent challenges faced by universities across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) in advancing the SDGs. This important document offers a roadmap for aligning education systems with SDG priorities. Key takeaways include:

• SDG 4 (Quality Education) and SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities) continue to be leading priorities across MENA institutions.
• The implementation of SDG 17 (Partnerships for the Goals) shows notable variance across countries, calling for context-specific strategies.
• Increasing institutional engagement across the region reflects growing momentum but also underscores the need for sustained policy backing.

The York University UNESCO Chair team will once more join the official Canadian Delegation to the HLPF and will engage in a number of events and activities from 17-22 July 2025. Please stay tuned on our social media channels for details of on-site and online events.

In advance, here are three offerings of virtual HLPF events that we would like to draw your attention to:

1. UNITAR will host a virtual side event on 23 July 2025 at 1:15-2:30pm EDT with a focus on their new higher education community in the LEAP-FAST Programme (Leaders in Higher Education Alliance & Programme: For Accelerating Sustainability Transformations). Stay tuned for more details.
2. You can access free capacity building, choosing from 12 SDGs in Practice Sessions from 14-23 July 2025, offered by UN DESA and UNITAR. Webinars will cover key themes, such as health, gender equality, strategic foresight, digital platforms and data innovation, citizen-generated data, stakeholder engagement for SDG implementation, and more. Learn more here.
3. The global higher education community will come together during the virtual HESI (Higher Education Sustainability Alliance) Global Forum on 21 July 2025 from 7:00-9:30am EDT. Register today.

In advance of the HLPF, the Education & Academia Stakeholder Group (EASG) has released its 2025 Sectoral Paper. Emphasizing education as a human right and key enabler of the 2030 Agenda, it connects SDG 4 with this year’s HLPF Focus SDGs: 3 (Health), 5 (Gender Equality), 8 (Decent Work), 14 (Life Below Water), and 17 (Partnerships). York's UNESCO Chair team supported the writing process with evidence-based input and explicit references to ESD.

SDG Index Report 2025

Produced by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network's (SDSN) SDG Transformation Center, the report has provided the annual data to track the performance of all UN Member States since 2016. Eighty years after the creation of the UN system, the report also provides improved and updated measures to track countries' efforts to support UN-based multilateralism.

UN Secretary-General's SDG Report 2025

The UN Secretary-General’s latest SDG Progress Report reveals that 35% of the 137 Sustainable Development Goal targets with available data are still on track or making moderate progress. The report highlights that, despite persistent global challenges, progress is possible through bold and collective actions, combined with targeted investment.

Join our friends from the United Nations University Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability (UNU-IAS) on 7 July 2025 from 10:00–11:40 CST (Beijing time) for the online seminar Greening Education: Transforming Circular Economy Education for Future Generations. This session will explore how circular economy principles, such as resource efficiency, waste reduction, and lifecycle value retention, can be integrated into business and higher education efforts. Speakers will share insights from a new UNU-IAS report and highlight transformative learning models that equip students with the skills and mindsets needed for a sustainable future. Educators, researchers, students, and policymakers are encouraged to attend and contribute to rethinking education for circularity and long-term resilience.

As we navigate the evolving landscape of higher education, the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and ESD presents both transformative opportunities and critical challenges. Taylor’s 16^th Teaching & Learning Conference (TTLC 2025) on 11-12 September 2025 aims to serve as a platform for dialogue, collaboration, and actionable insights in this space. UNESCO Chair Charles Hopkins will offer a pre-conference workshop on integrating ESD into the curriculum and deliver a keynote on ESD. Selected papers will be considered for publication in Scopus-indexed journals. Join us in Kuala Lumpur!

A call for abstracts is currently open until 1 August 2025.

Hosted by the Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE), the Eco-Campus International Conference is a global event that brings together academic leaders, sustainability practitioners, policymakers, and students to advance sustainability across education systems. Participants of this second edition, to be held in Malaysia on 18-20 September 2025, will explore innovations in higher education that bridge disciplines, sectors, or communities, including collaborative initiatives between researchers and practitioners, transdisciplinary methodologies, and community-engaged scholarship. Join us in Kuala Lumpur to celebrate the whole-system approaches and multi-sector collaborations driving meaningful progress towards greening education!

A call for abstracts is currently open until 1 September 2025.

Join young changemakers from around the world at the 12^th International Youth Conference (IYC12) in New York City during UNGA80 High-Level Week on 24-27 September 2025. Under the theme Youth Solutions for a Changing World, IYC12 will feature global dialogues, innovation labs, and a youth-led outcome declaration.

Universities have long been trusted institutions, valued for their openness, ethical commitments, and self-correcting systems. Yet today, their ability to demonstrate value is increasingly questioned. To be held in Kigali (Rwanda) on 21-23 October 2025, the IAU 2025 Conference will explore the foundations of trust in higher education in uncertain times. The full programme is available now and early bird registration is open until 1 September 2025.

The 14^th Global Conference of the Regional Centres of Expertise on Education for Sustainable Development will be held in Okayama (Japan) on 21 – 23 October 2025. It will bring together RCE members and key stakeholders to exchange knowledge, celebrate achievements and shape the future of ESD. The conference is organized and hosted by UNU-IAS, RCE Okayama and Okayama City. UNU-IAS serves as the Global Service Centre to the Global RCE Network through its work on innovation and education. Online attendance is open to the public.

On 22-24 October 2025, the AASHE 2025 Conference & Expo will bring together higher education sustainability leaders, researchers, and practitioners to share strategies, research, and best practices in Minneapolis (MN, USA). Topics include climate action, curriculum development, and equity. The conference offers workshops, panels, and networking to support institutions in advancing sustainability across teaching, operations, and community engagement. Join us at the AASHE 2025 Conference when UNESCO Chair Charles Hopkins will receive the AASHE Lifetime Achievement Award!

To be held on 19-20 November 2025 as an online event, the 2025 Higher Education Summit invites bold contributions to transform education in uncertain times. Climate crisis, conflict, inequality, and misinformation challenge us - but higher education can respond with courage and creativity. Join students, educators, and changemakers to explore transformative learning, inner development, and regenerative leadership. A call for abstract is open until 11 July 2025.

UNESCO is seeking applicants for the 2026–2027 cohort of the SDG4 Youth & Student Network. Young people passionate about education are invited to join this global community of youth leaders working to advance education worldwide. If you are between the ages 18–30 and passionate about transforming education, apply to help shape global education policy, share youth perspectives, and drive change towards inclusive, quality education for all. Applications are open until 10 July 2025.

For all who engage in the UNESCO-led Greening Education Partnership, this may be of interest: Within the context of the Greening Education Partnership, a working group on Greening Communities has developed a guidance and standard-setting document to strengthen systemic approaches to climate change education and communication within local communities. Now this document is out as a draft version for a global consultation until 8 July 2025.

Your comments and suggestions will be valuable in finalizing the document to ensure that it will be of highest relevance for local governments and other stakeholders across the globe. Have your voice now and contribute on or before 8 July 2025.

Trying to make sense out of the work of the UN system or aiming to explain to others? Try this new website that presents the essentials and most important aspects of the global UN efforts.