Abstract:

We are reaching the end of the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development, that was promoted in the year 2002 by the United Nations General Assembly. The main objective of this initiative is to transform society by increasing environmental awareness and fostering sustainable development. The concept of sustainable development is in constant evolution, but it could be defined as the pursuit of a better quality of life for everybody, including the future generations. It is clear that to reach this goal, economic growth has to be compatible with environmental protection.
To move towards truly sustainable development, education is of utmost importance. In this article, some of the educational initiatives proposed by UNESCO and others are analyzed. To start with, “The teaching and learning program for a sustainable future” is described. It is a training program designed for educators, writers and decision makers, that includes more than 100 hours of activities, document reading and question answering. Also, the role of information and communication technologies (ICT’s) in the dissemination of sustainable development issues is discussed, and a center in Nepal, that uses radio stations and the Internet for this purposes is briefly described. Finally, a web page promoted by UNESCO and called youthXchange is mentioned. This site uses a simple and direct language to modify the attitudes of young people towards consumption and environmental issues.

Keywords:

Sustainable Development, Teaching for a Sustainable Future.