ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the relationship between education and sustainable development. Sustainable development is about such pressing global challenges as climate change, biodiversity loss, marine pollution, unemployment and the unjust division of wealth between developed and developing countries. A sustainable development involves comprehensive and far-reaching transformations and fundamental shifts in perspective. There is consensus in academia that these changes can only be brought about through drastic changes in lifestyle and the dominant patterns of production and consumption. Educational processes should promote a greater awareness of issues concerning the sustainable development of society and develop competences allowing individuals to participate in coming up with innovative solutions to the economic, social, technological and cultural problems threatening the Earth’s ecosystem. Education for sustainable development opens up new perspectives on traditional educational subjects. An education oriented towards a respect for human dignity and democracy is thus extended to include recognition of the natural bases of life on Earth.
