On February 19, 2026, the Shanghai Municipal Institute for Lifelong Education (SMILE) in collaboration with Mingqiang Primary School from Qibao Town, Minhang District, Shanghai, took part in a landmark Thematic Meeting convened by the Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) Working Group of the UNESCO Global Network of Learning Cities (GNLC). This inaugural event of 2026 was strategically centered on the theme “Harnessing Digital Technologies and AI for ESD in Learning Cities,” highlighting the transformative potential of cutting-edge technologies in advancing sustainability education worldwide.
The assembly featured compelling keynote speeches delivered by distinguished representatives from Shanghai, China, and Espoo, Finland — two exemplary learning cities at the forefront of integrating digital innovation with sustainability education. Delegates from multiple GNLC member cities engaged in rigorous discourse, exploring progressive methodologies to empower education for sustainable development by leveraging artificial intelligence and other digital tools. The forum was skillfully co-moderated by Zhang Lingli, a part-time researcher from SMILE, and Katie Jones, consultant to UNESCO’s Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL).
Cheng Yuyan, a dedicated educator from Mingqiang Primary School, represented Shanghai and presented insightful findings on “Practice and Exploration of AI-Empowered Climate Change Education in Primary Schools.” Cheng articulated how the institution has pioneered the integration of AI technologies into climate education over two years, reflecting a commitment to reshaping traditional learning paradigms. The school’s innovative programs illustrate the power of AI in dismantling cognitive barriers and cultivating forward-thinking competencies among students, thus revolutionizing climate literacy at the grassroots level.
Central to Mingqiang’s approach is the development of a multifaceted “AI + Climate Education” model, which encompasses five critical application pathways: environmental simulation, creative expression, empirical analysis, interactive dialogue, and immersive experience. These pathways not only deepen students’ understanding but transition learners from rote knowledge acquisition to complex problem-solving, emphasizing real-world impact and critical engagement with climate challenges.
Moreover, Mingqiang Primary School implements a cognition-to-action framework that guides students through stages of understanding, empathy, inquiry, design, and advocacy. This model fosters a dynamic connection between educational content and community involvement, embedding climate action within familial and societal contexts. Ethical oversight of AI-generated content and promotion of critical thinking remain paramount in the school’s student-centered pedagogy, ensuring responsible and reflective engagement with technology.
Looking ahead, the school has ambitious plans to partner with diverse stakeholders to create a municipal digital resource bank dedicated to AI-based climate change education. This initiative aims to disseminate localized yet scalable educational practices internationally through UNESCO’s ESD networks, setting a global benchmark for technology-enabled climate literacy.
Espoo, Finland, likewise showcased its distinctive digital strategy through the presentation by Game Culture expert Kimmo Leinonen. Espoo leverages its robust gaming industry infrastructure to embed sustainable development principles within its education system, notably through a Minecraft-based learning model. The city has institutionalized this approach by hosting the recurring “Builders of a Sustainable Future” Challenge, a competition that invites young students to collaboratively envision sustainable urban futures in immersive, gamified environments.
The 2024 iteration of this challenge asked students from grades one through nine to conceptualize “Sustainable Espoo 2040,” aligning tasks meticulously with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. This method empowers students to develop nuanced understandings of sustainability’s socio-ecological dimensions by simulating collaborative design and strategic planning within a well-known digital platform. The best student proposals receive further refinement with municipal experts, bridging classroom creativity with real-world civic innovation.
To support this advanced pedagogical model, Espoo invests heavily in targeted professional development for educators, the creation of online technological support ecosystems, and multidisciplinary review panels to tackle infrastructural deficits and teacher preparedness. These systemic bolstering measures have dismantled traditional barriers to digital learning, enabling widespread and equitable access to immersive sustainability education across different demographics.
The discourse during the meeting extended beyond presentations into a collaborative exploration of critical themes, including feedback mechanisms between families and schools, the necessity of cross-sector partnerships, digital literacy dissemination, teacher empowerment, program evaluation, and international collaboration. The keynote speakers addressed these multifaceted challenges with rich examples drawn from their cities’ experiences, underscoring the imperative for integrated policies and cooperative frameworks.
Shanghai and Espoo’s synergistic yet distinct approaches provide a compelling dual paradigm showcasing how digital innovation can be tailored to diverse cultural, infrastructural, and societal contexts. Both cities exemplify the critical role of emerging technologies in democratizing learning and accelerating action toward global sustainability targets. Their efforts also highlight the importance of international partnerships in propelling the Education for Sustainable Development agenda forward.
During the forum, the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning issued a global call to action, inviting learning cities worldwide to submit educational practice cases related to biodiversity, ocean literacy, Sustainable Development Goals, and digital innovation. This initiative aims to cultivate an enriched international repository of ESD exemplars, fostering enhanced mutual learning and cooperative advancement across the network.
The meeting’s outcomes provided novel perspectives on how digital and intelligent tools can fundamentally empower education for sustainable development. It fortified existing collaborations among Shanghai, Espoo, and other global learning cities, injecting renewed energy into the global ESD movement and reinforcing lifelong learning as a cornerstone of climate action.
Beyond the meeting, SMILE continues to influence global dialogues by contributing to UNESCO’s publication, Greening Communities Guidance: Lifelong Learning for Climate and Sustainability Action. The institute is simultaneously advancing pioneering research on climate change education tailored to Chinese contexts. Its forthcoming release, Guidelines for Climate Change Education (Digital and Intelligent Empowerment Edition), scheduled to debut during the Shanghai Climate Week 2026, seeks to inspire and support educational institutions across China—from universities to community colleges—in innovating climate education grounded in local realities.
As a key coordinator within the UNESCO GNLC’s ESD Working Group, Shanghai plans ongoing collaboration with Hamburg, Germany, to drive the year’s 12 Working Group and Thematic Meetings and to co-organize the 2026 Global Online Conference on ESD. This sustained international engagement underscores the integral role of digital empowerment in forging resilient, sustainable learning ecosystems worldwide.
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News Publication Date: February 19, 2026
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Keywords: Education for Sustainable Development, AI in Education, Climate Change Education, Digital Technologies, UNESCO GNLC, Lifelong Learning, Sustainable Cities, Gamification, Minecraft, Cross-sector Collaboration, Teacher Training, Environmental Simulation
