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7 October 2025

Blog Global

Jakarta Students Reimagine a Cleaner City with Minecraft

Through the Schools Reinventing Cities competition, more than 2,000 young people from 324 schools used Minecraft Education to design innovative, low-emission neighbourhoods that support Jakarta’s 2050 net-zero goals. The initiative highlights how youth creativity and leadership can drive real solutions for air pollution and climate change.

What does a cleaner, healthier Jakarta look like through the eyes of its young people?

Earlier this year, more than 2,000 students from 324 schools across the city set out to answer that question in the Schools Reinventing Cities competition. Using Minecraft Education, Jakarta’s youth imagined a cleaner, healthier version of the city with its planned Kawasan Rendah Emisi Terpadu (KRE-T), or Integrated Low Emission Zones, helping to shape the vision for a future with cleaner air.

Jakarta faces persistent air pollution from many sources, especially transport, which produces 57% of nitrogen oxides, 93% of carbon monoxide, and nearly half of fine particulate matter (PM2.5). To address this, the city is developing an implementation plan for KRE-T, as part of Jakarta’s long-term clean air and net-zero by 2050 commitment that brings together cleaner transport, energy, waste, and urban design to cut emissions and protect health.

The Minecraft Education competition brought the vision of the KRE-T to Jakarta’s youth. Organised by Breathe Jakarta and the Jakarta Provincial Government, in collaboration with Clean Air Asia, it formed part of C40’s global Schools Reinventing Cities programme. Jakarta became the first city in the world to adopt this toolkit as a city-wide challenge, demonstrating bold leadership in empowering young people to become champions for climate action.

In total, 707 student teams—representing all age groups between 6 and 18—took part, creating designs that aligned directly with Jakarta’s 2050 net-zero and clean air targets. Their work showed how creativity and innovation can help inform efforts to reduce pollution and carbon emissions from key sources in the city. By linking the competition to a real-world policy, Jakarta aimed to raise public awareness of its clean air initiatives while placing young voices firmly at the centre of the conversation.

Jakarta’s Governor Pramono Anung presented the winners with the prestigious Governor’s Trophy, with certificates formally recognised as part of students’ official academic achievements.

Highlights

Over 2,000 Jakarta students used Minecraft Education to reimagine cleaner, healthier low-emission zones across the city.

Jakarta became the first city globally to adopt the Schools Reinventing Cities toolkit as a city-wide youth challenge, showcasing bold leadership in youth-led climate action.

Jakarta’s students demonstrated how creativity and community action can help reduce pollution and inspire healthier, more sustainable urban futures.

As one of Breathe Cities cohort, I am pleased to see our collaboration with Schools Reinventing Jakarta. This competition fosters youth awareness and innovation by encouraging students to develop urban emission reduction strategies and envision the concept of Integrated Low Emission Zone using tools like Minecraft Education—blending creativity with climate and clean air action for a healthier Jakarta.

Pramono Anung

Governor of Jakarta

The Schools Reinventing Cities challenge was part of Jakarta’s wider Udara Kita Bersih (Our Air is Clean) campaign. Alongside the student competition, Clean Air Asia led the Move Cleaner Challenge, encouraging residents to measure their PM2.5 emission reductions by switching to public transport, while the Governor called on civil servants to use public transport every Wednesday, further showing support for clean air action.

From colourful digital neighbourhoods to visionary transport hubs, Jakarta’s students proved that imagination can inspire real-world solutions. Their Minecraft creations have become a creative tool to raise awareness, engage the public, and show young people’s commitment to tackling air pollution and climate change. Through initiatives like this, the city is showing how government leadership, community action, and youth innovation can combine to create a healthier, more sustainable Jakarta—and inspire others around the world to do the same.

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