Separate Tracks or Real Synergy? Achieving a Closer Relationship between Education and SD, Post-2015

This article is based upon a longer concept paper commissioned by UNESCO in preparation for the World Conference on ESD, and entitled ‘Winning the Future We Want—the pivotal role of education and learning’. Neither this article nor the original paper necessarily represents UNESCO’S views. The brief for this paper was to make a strong case for education for sustainable development (ESD) as a critically important means of realizing sustainable development goals and was based upon UNESCO’s analysis that the sustainable development discourse—including high-level reports associated with the post-2015 agenda—largely does not recognize the central role that learning and education must play in supporting individual and social change. The commissioned paper therefore covers a broad sweep including the place and role of education and learning in the context of the need for urgent social change; an outline of relevant ESD theory including learning strategies; a desk-based critical review of the post-2015 debate; and an outline of the role of ESD as a key to sustainable development. This article is a shortened and updated version of the paper.