“Afforestation is a must if we are to improve on the current loss of biodiversity and enhance rainfall.”

This was the submission of the Director-General and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet), Professor Sani Mashi at the launch of the Regional Centre for Expertise (RCE) Ogun and Climate Change Convention held recently at Covenant University, Ota, Nigeria, on 4 February, 2019.

The first Asia-Pacific SDG Challenge held in 2018, 'Youth for the Goals: Climate Action and Life Below Water' aimed to inspire and mobilise on-ground projects led by youth, centred around SDGs 13 and 14.

Collectively it achieved an engagement of nearly 40,000 youth participants across the Asia-Pacific region.

In January, RCE Hangzhou hosted a forum on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), with ten principals from primary, secondary, and high schools speaking at the event.

A number of new ESD activities planned for 2019 were announced, including a music festival and an SDGs soccer competition.

Following a successful pilot last year, the 2019 RCE Youth SDG Challenge ‘Youth for the Goals: Social Inequalities’ is back! Led by the Asia-Pacific Regional Youth Leaders (from RCE Greater Western Sydney and RCE Yogyakarta) via the RCE network, this year's challenge will focus on SDG 1: No Poverty, SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation and SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities and is open to all youth globally.

A ‘National Seminar on Environmental Awareness for NGOs and Media’ was recently held on 28-29 January, 2019 by the Institute of Environment and Sustainable Development (IESD) at Banaras Hindu University (BHU), India, to create awareness on the latest developments in the areas of the environment and sustainability.

The Global RCE Service Centre would like to extend a warm welcome to five new RCEs who were acknowledged at the Thirteenth Meeting of the Ubuntu Committee of Peers for the RCEs, held on 6 December, 2018, in Cebu, the Philippines:

• RCE Sundarbans (Bangladesh)
• RCE Qingdao (China)
• RCE Sakon Nakhon (Thailand)
• RCE North Texas (USA)
• RCE Gran Caracas (Venezuela)

Please join us in welcoming these new RCEs to the RCE family!

The United Nations University has announced its call for applications for new Regional Centres of Expertise on Education for Sustainable Development (RCE).

All 17 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) took centre stage at the 11th Global RCE Conference, which was hosted by RCE Cebu at the University of the Philippines, Cebu from 7-9 December, 2018 under the theme 'Education for the Sustainable Development Goals'.