The current issue of the journal comes in the year that marks 20 years of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) held at Rio de Janeiro in 1992. At that time, along with Agenda 21, came the three important multilateral environment conventions on climate change, biological diversity and desertification. This was a period over which the concept of ESD evolved.

The UN DESD started in 2005 and UNESCO was given the responsibility to be the lead agency on behalf of the UN. And so, 20 years after Rio, the authors felt it would be appropriate to ask the DESD secretariat at UNESCO to compile and edit a special section which would help explore the way ESD has evolved over the three conventions. UNESCO has contributed to the special section on ESD to this issue of JESD.