From November 30 to December 3, 2022, the Earth Charter 22nd Anniversary Conference on Education for Sustainable Development was held in San José, Costa Rica, with more than 80 offline and 20 online participants coming from all over the world. The theme of this conference is: Putting Planetary Well-being at the Core: A Call to Turn Our Conscience into Action. As the only Chinese university invited, Liaoning University organized a delegation made up of Professor YU Miaojie, President of Liaoning University, Professor MA Shuang, Director of the International Exchanges Department, and Professor YOU Yu, Vice Dean of Li Anmin Institute of Economic Research. President YU Miaojie made a video speech for the conference, and Professors MA Shuang and YOU Yu attended the conference as offline participants. 

The Earth Charter is a United Nations initiative to promote global sustainable development and is recognized by UNESCO as an important ethical framework for sustainable development. The Earth Charter is now increasingly recognized as a global consensus statement and has become a global movement involving organizations and individuals in all regions of the world. This steadily growing movement is coordinated by Earth Charter International (ECI), the organization that powers the Earth Charter global movement with information, networking, and education to turn conscience into action. The UNESCO Chair on Education for Sustainable Development with the Earth Charter is coordinated by the Earth Charter Center for Education for Sustainable Development and the University for Peace, based in Costa Rica. 

On November 30, at the China-themed Forum of this year’s Earth Charter Education Conference for Sustainable Development, President YU Miaojie of Liaoning University delivered a keynote speech in the form of video entitled “Exploring the Cooperation Model between the Earth Charter and Domestic Universities". Mr TANG Heng, Ambassador of the Chinese Embassy in Costa Rica, attended the forum and delivered a inspiring speech, and Ms Fang Hong, Chairman of ECI China Center (Prep), announced the establishment of ECI China. The homepage of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China reported this event.

Professors MA Shuang and YOU Yu were invited to give keynote speeches respectively on "LNU’s Education and Practice of Planetary Well-being and Sustainable Development" and "China's Experience on the Construction of Global Well-being Evaluation Indicators" at the two-day international conference, and participated in related topic discussions.

The participation of Liaoning University in this conference is of great significance in that it not only represented Chinese universities, but also was on behalf of China. The speeches given by President YU Miaojie and Professors MA Shuang and YOU Yu well disseminated China's voice and established China's image. The participants spoke highly of the LNU representatives, which generated great international repercussions, and played a great role in improving the possibility of Liaoning University’s joining the UNITWIN Program on Education for Sustainable Development and Social Transformation, and in promoting Liaoning University as a potential Chair of the UNESCO Earth Charter on Education for Sustainable Development.

President YU Miaojie of Liaoning University delivered a keynote video speech 

Mr TANG Heng (in the Middle), Ambassador of the Chinese Embassy in Costa Rica, were with the Chinese representatives

Professor MA Shuang were giving the keynote speech

Professor YOU Yu was answering the questions posed by the experts