Europe and North America Regional Initiatives

“Success in reversing unsustainable trends will to a large extent depend on high-quality education for sustainable development at all levels of education including education on issues such as the sustainable use of energies and transport systems, sustainable consumption and production patterns, health, media competence and responsible global citizenship.”

In the context of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005-2014), Member States could further develop their national action plans, making in particular use of the “Education and training 2010” work programme, whose objectives are focused on quality and relevance on access for all and on the openness of systems and institutions to society and the wider world... Special attention should be devoted to teacher training. They should also implement the UNECE Strategy for Education for Sustainable Development adopted in Vilnius in2005.”- stated the EU Educational Council in May 2005.
 
The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Strategy

This regional strategy prepared to facilitate the introduction and promotion of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) was developed through a participatory process involving governments, international organizations, NGOs, the academic community and other stakeholders. The strategy was adopted at the UNECE High-level meeting of Education and Environment Ministries in Vilnius, Lithuania, to launch the DESD in the region on 18 March 2005. At this meeting, the Task Force on Education for Sustainable Development recognized that the various ongoing projects in the region, in relation to ESD should be taken note of and used in support of the implementation of the Strategy. At the same time, it agreed that there are still challenges in implementing ESD effectively, including strengthening cooperation among governments and stakeholders, improving education systems to address the interdisciplinary nature of ESD, improving and streamlining formal, non-formal and informal learning, and mobilizing adequate institutional and material provisions for ESD.
 
Many countries have established formal interdepartmental cooperation mechanisms, while others have setup working groups for the implementation of the strategy that include several governmental bodies and stakeholders such as NGOs, businesses, regional authorities and heads of educational institutions. A Steering Committee for the UNECE ESD Strategy with specific responsibility for overseeing its implementation in the region has been created. Each country has committed to translate the UNECE Strategy into national languages, create national coordination bodies and establish focal points and national action plans.

Consultations
 
International Workshop “Education for Sustainable Development Worldwide- Commonalities and Differences” organized by the German Commission for UNESCO, the State Government of North-Rhine Westphalia and other partners, with support from UNESCO and Japan ESD Funds-in-Trust, was held on 28-29 November 2006 in Bonn, Germany. The event reflected on how to make ESD heard in the political arena, nationally and internationally and develop a viable response to the challenge of having a clearly defined concept of ESD.
 
Nordic Conference on Sustainable Social Development, Oslo, Norway, 26-27 October 2006, looked at the question of “how can Nordic countries continue to develop the Nordic Region in a more sustainable direction?” One of the workshops focused on the UN DESD through the theme “Learning to change our world” during which best practice examples on initiatives for building competence towards the future that focus on environment, fair distribution and participation were presented. The workshop was chaired by the Ideas Bank (http://www.idebanken.no/index.php) which promotes innovations that lead to a better environment and stronger communities, globally as well as locally.
 
International ESD Conference, Lisbon, Portugal 14-15 December 2006 was organized to look at ESD in the national perspective and highlight some dimensions, practices and case studies in Portugal, as well as looking at ESD in Europe. Portugal has created an ad hoc group composed of different stakeholders that produced a document on both strategies and directions for action in various fields connected with ESD at the national level.
Projects/Initiatives

Mediterranean Education Initiative for Environment & Sustainability with an emphasis on water and waste (MEdIES). This initiative on EE and ESD was launched by MIO-ECSDE* in Johannesburg during the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD, 2002). MEdIES is one of the major initiatives for ESD in the Mediterranean region and its Network of Educators is continuously expanding. Up till now (September 2007), 39 institutions in the region are participating in the initiative. MEdIES aims to facilitate the educational community in a systematic and concrete way to contribute to the implementation of Agenda 21 and MDGs through successful application of innovative Education Programmes on the topics of waste water in countries around the Mediterranean basin. Through the implementation of common activities and projects and close collaboration of Northern and Southern Mediterranean countries, the ultimate goal of the initiative is the development of a methodological framework to be adapted and further implemented in other regions of the world.

BALTIC 21 is a joint, long-term effort by the 11 countries of the Council of the Baltic Sea States, CBSS. These include Denmark, Finland, Germany, Estonia, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, and Sweden. These countries differ widely as far as economic, social and environmental preconditions are concerned, but they agree on the long-term goals they wish to attain for the region as a whole. The emphasis is on regional co-operation, and the work is focused on seven economic sectors (agriculture, energy, fisheries, forests, industry, tourism and transport) as well as on spatial planning and on education. The overriding objective of Baltic 21 is to contribute to achieving sustainable development in the Baltic Sea Region in a 30-year perspective. Long-term aspects, regional co-operation, sectoral responsibility, openness, democracy and transparency, are the pillars of the Baltic 21 process. Baltic 21 complements international, national and local initiatives in the Baltic Sea Region. The essential objective of the Baltic Sea Region co-operation is the constant improvement of the living and working conditions of their people within the framework of sustainable development, sustainable management of natural resources and protection of the environment. Sustainable development includes three mutually interdependent dimensions – economic, social and environmental.

The Green Pack is a multimedia Environmental Education curriculum kit primarily intended for European Primary School teachers and their students. The Green Pack Programme goal is to build capacities, transfer know-how and establish the basis for further developments in the field of ESD.  The Green Pack, initiated in 2001, includes a variety of educational materials such as a teacher’s handbook with lesson plans and fact sheets for students, a film collection with animated clips and educational films, an interactive CD-ROM with extensive information on various environmental topics and a dilemma game. The Green Pack has been used to teach 12,000 teachers and 1.5 million students in six countries in the Central and Eastern Europe. The Green Pack is currently in available in 11 country versions (including an English version). The Programme is being monitored by the Regional Environment Centre for Central and Eastern Europe.

The Bologna Process and Education for Sustainable Development
The Bologna Process involves 46 European countries striving to unify higher education institutions throughout Europe. The most important goal of the project is to create a common European Higher Education (and research) Area by 2010. This common space shall provide students, instructors, and the administration of high education institutions greater flexibility through the structural convergence process, but without doing away with national uniqueness and variety of education systems. In the Bergen Communiqué of 2005, the European Education Ministers declared to strengthen their course in bringing about a common higher education area building upon the principle of sustainable development. The involved participants agreed that European higher education institutions carry a joint responsibility to find the best answers to present and future social challenges on a national, regional, and international scale. Many of the goals brought forth in the Bologna Process, especially with regard to the European qualification framework, form a solid foundation for strengthening the Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) within the national higher education systems and academic disciplines.