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The Northern Environmental Education Regional Center held an international symposium on "Education for Sustainable Development" at NTNU from September 13 to 14, inviting scholars from the Netherlands, America, Japan, Singapore, Korea and Taiwan to discuss contemporary environmental educational issues.

Liu Tsung Yung, Director of the Department of Planning at Environmental Protection Administration of the Executive Yuan, gave a short talk at the symposium. He mentioned that sustainable development is a universal issue. Everyone should care about it, not just environmental administrations. If the society is aware of the importance of being environmental, it would be more convenient for the government to implement related policy.

The UNESCO Chair of Social Learning and Sustainable Development, Arjen Wals, was the first speaker. He talked about the trend of sustainable development internationally and what environmental education is like in the Netherlands as well as the problem in conducting the courses. Wals thinks that the government must first recognize the problems and the vision of various departments in order to increase the efficiency of cooperation. With environmental education, teachers should also improve the relevant literacy and teaching ability. Workshops and training courses can be helpful to teachers. Go out of the classroom and be in the environment can raise the environmental awareness of students and teachers. Wals says that sustainability is not just a subject but a lifestyle. Many young people think that sustainability environment is a complicated and huge issue and don’t want to do anything because it’s too big a problem. Wals thinks that energy saving light bulbs and green building materials are commonly seen in daily life, and the power of individuals can solve the problem if combined together.

Yeh Shin Cheng, Chairman of the Graduate Institute of Environmental Protection, said that the speakers at the seminar are top professionals in the environmental education sector and well-known experts. Through lectures, we could understand how to promote sustainable development in different cultural contexts. The International Symposium on "Sustainable Development Education" was held on the 13th. The "Civil Café" was be held on the afternoon of 14th, and a number of topics were arranged for participants to discuss.