ESD aims at developing competencies that empower individuals to reflect on their own actions, taking into account their current and future social, cultural, economic and environmental impacts, from a local and a global perspective. Individuals should also be empowered to act in complex situations in a sustainable manner, which may require them to strike out in new directions; and to participate in socio-political processes, moving their societies towards sustainable development.

ESD has to be understood as an integral part of quality education, inherent in the concept of lifelong learning: All educational institutions – from preschool to tertiary education and in non-formal and informal education – can and should consider it their responsibility to deal intensively with matters of sustainable development and to foster the development of sustainability competencies. ESD provides an education that matters and is truly relevant to every learner in the light of today’s challenges.

ESD is holistic and transformational education that addresses learning content and outcomes, pedagogy and the learning environment. Thus, ESD does not only integrate contents such as climate change, poverty and sustainable consumption into the curriculum; it also creates interactive, learner-centred teaching and learning settings. What ESD requires is a shift from teaching to learning. It asks for an action-oriented, transformative pedagogy, which supports self-directed learning, participation and collaboration, problem-orientation, inter- and transdisciplinarity and the linking of formal and informal learning. Only such pedagogical approaches make possible the development of the key competencies needed for promoting sustainable development.

International recognition of ESD as a key enabler for sustainable development has been growing steadily. ESD was acknowledged as such at the three seminal global sustainable development summits: the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro; the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg, South Africa; and the 2012 UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD), also in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. ESD is also recognized in other key global agreements, such as the Paris Agreement (Article 12).

The United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005–2014) (DESD) aimed at integrating the principles and practices of sustainable development into all aspects of education and learning. It also aimed to encourage changes in knowledge, values and attitudes with the vision of enabling a more sustainable and just society for all. The Global Action Programme (GAP) on ESD, which was endorsed by UNESCO’s 37th General Conference (November 2013), acknowledged by UN General Assembly Resolution A/RES/69/211 and launched on 12 November 2014 at the UNESCO World Conference on ESD in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan, strives to scale up ESD, building on the DESD.