Tomorrow today; 2010 - unesdoc - Unesco
Tomorrow today; 2010 - unesdoc - Unesco
Tomorrow today; 2010 - unesdoc - Unesco
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Unlocking the potential of<br />
ESD for green growth<br />
Kang Sangkyoo, Korean National Commission for UNESCO<br />
With the global economic turbulence and climate change,<br />
we are at a point where we must speak up about the<br />
need for change and our capacity for achieving it. Such<br />
change will lead us to take on economic, social and environmental<br />
issues in a more convergent manner, and thus compel education of<br />
all types and levels to become a tool for tackling the pressing challenges<br />
in view of global balance and local reality. A wide variety of<br />
problems are profoundly interlinked and a single possible solution<br />
will never fix them all at once. Education is a slow but ultimately<br />
crucial means by which to change the complex equation.<br />
Our generation and those to follow are facing serious challenges,<br />
including financial crises, global warming, biodiversity loss, poverty<br />
and food and water shortages. United Nations Secretary-General Ban<br />
Ki-moon has called for a ‘Global Green New Deal’ to help rebuild<br />
and reshape the economy of our planet. World leaders argue that<br />
this crisis is a call to speed up the creation of a new energy economy.<br />
It is in this spirit that the Korean government announced Green<br />
Growth as a national vision that would shape Korea for the next<br />
six decades.<br />
Korea’s economy is largely dependent on external factors, including<br />
foreign oil and export earnings. Rapid economic growth since<br />
the 1960s has produced imbalance in environmental and<br />
social integrity. Military and diplomatic tensions between<br />
North and South Korea threaten political stability. Low<br />
birthrates and an ageing population will continue to feed<br />
chronic national vulnerability in the immediate future.<br />
Green Growth was introduced in 2008 to promote the<br />
belief that growth and environmental sustainability are not<br />
merely compatible, but mutually necessary for the future<br />
of humankind. The government has already enacted the<br />
Framework Act on Green Growth and embarked on<br />
an official launch of the Global Green Growth Institute<br />
(GGGI) in <strong>2010</strong>. While the Act serves as the guiding principle<br />
of development for Korea, the Institute is expected<br />
to become a platform through which Korea cooperates<br />
and collaborates with emerging and developing nations<br />
in their efforts to create and implement national and local<br />
strategies and policies for pursuing green growth. Seen<br />
in this light, the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable<br />
Development (DESD) in Korea has vast potential to be<br />
implemented in alignment not only with the priorities of<br />
the national sustainable development objectives, but also<br />
as part of global efforts for a sustainable common future.<br />
Image: KNCU<br />
The launch event of the ESD Colloquium Series focused on green and creative human resources<br />
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