Environmental education is an essential precondition for public awareness, a change of consumption patterns, creating conditions for better integration of environmental consideration into sectoral policies and a responsible and active attitude of people in their relationship with nature. Education should put the environment into the broader social context of sustainable development.
While in some countries in the UN/ECE region such education is quite developed by combined or complementary efforts of the official education structures and NGOs, a European Charter could make a big difference in many other countries.
The Charter could both
The scope of the Charter should extend beyond schools and the general public, and should include "life-long learning" for all of society.
Specific education and training is required for civil servants and decision-makers outside the environmental authorities as well as in the agriculture, business sectors and the media.
The Charter should set up a framework for development of a strategy on education for sustainable development in the entire UN/ECE region, including guidelines for environmental and sustainable development education curricula and handbooks, creating open data bases on educational materials and techniques. It should involve different stakeholders in the educational process.
Therefore we strongly support the proposal of the Government of Ukraine to start preparing such a Charter to be adopted in Kiev.
(Submitted to WGSO-2, 28 September 2001, Geneva)