Background
The United Nations Millennium Declaration and the Millennium Development Goals recognize that global challenges are interconnected and therefore require interdependent solutions. The global challenges are complex. They affect rich and poor, the powerful and the powerless – but the latter often disproportionally. They recognize no boundaries. They include poverty, the unequal distribution, access and use of natural resources and land, population growth and reproductive health, migration, malnutrition, food production and food security, endemic and pandemic diseases, climate change, energy supply and security, ecosystems, biological diversity, water and sanitation, environmental pollution and toxins.
In its 1987 report, Our Common Future, the World Commission on Environment and Development, the so-called Brundtland Commission, defined sustainable development as “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”
In 1992 the UN Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janiero, Brazil adopted Agenda 21. It says the following on the role of education: "Education is critical for achieving environmental and ethical awareness, values and attitudes, skills and behaviour consistent with sustainable developmentand for effective public participation in decision-making."
The 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg stressed that the three components of sustainable development – economic development, social development and environmental protection – are interdependent and mutually reinforcing. It underscored the need to integrate sustainable development perspectives and subsequent action into all levels and forms of education.
In December 2002, the UN General Assembly proclaimed 2005-2014 as the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (UNDESD), with UNESCO as the lead agency. UNDESD´s overall goal is “To integrate the principles, values and practices of sustainable development into all aspects of education and learning. This education effort will encourage change in behaviour that will create a more sustainable future in terms of environmental integrity, economic viability, and a just society for present and future generations.” Key themes of the UNDESD include biodiversity, fresh water management, environmental conservation and protection, rural transformation, health promotion, sustainable production and consumption, human rights, peace and international understanding, and the crosscutting poverty alleviation and gender equality.
The Bonn Declaration adopted in 2009 affirmed that "ESD is based on values of justice, equity, tolerance, sufficiency and responsibility. It promotes gender equality, social cohesion and poverty reduction and emphasises care, integrity and honesty, as articulated in the Earth Charter.
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