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A central challenge of sustainable development is to provide material suffi ciency for the human population while preserving the integrity of Earth's biosphere. Current modes of economic production and consumption accomplish neither of these ethical imperatives. Institutions of higher education must show leadership in the transition to sustainable ways of life. The Earth Charter is a people's declaration of ethical principles for securing a just, peaceful, humane and sustainable future. The document can serve as a valuable resource for tertiary educators. The Earth Charter provides an inclusive defi nition of sustainability, emphasising the interrelated concepts of ecological integrity; social and economic justice; and democracy, nonviolence and peace. It can help us resolve the tension between educating for sustainability while creating learning spaces for contestation and critical inquiry. The Earth Charter also valorises the principle of intergenerational equity, challenging us to create human livelihoods that secure the continued full fl ourishing of all life for generations to come.

This contribution provides some insights in possible future developments in Environmental and Sustainability Education (ESE). Some challenges for the field are presented in light of a rapidly changing world that has homogenizing and polarizing tendencies. Four different movements and emphases within education, communication, and participation in relation to people and planet are distinguished: from nature conservation education (NCE), to environmental education (EE), to education for sustainable development (ESD) to environmental and sustainability education (ESE). These diff erent 'educations' do not literally succeed one another. Rather, they often they run parallel. The authors observe a trend in some parts of the world towards convergence where both sense of place and the strengthening of relationships between people and people and the non-human and more-than-human world, as well as the questioning of deep rooted structures and hegemonic values, engaging multiple actors with sometime confl icting views and the crossing of boundaries between sectors and disciplines, are considered critical. The readers of this special issue are challenged to mirror these movements with their own histories and realities but also to imagine how nascent scientific, technological, social, and ecological developments might perturb, disrupt, and/or transform the fi eld of environmental education in ways that allow for more sustainable futures to emerge.

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