IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v17y2025i5p2043-d1600891.html

Assessing the Role of Environmental Education Practices Towards the Attainment of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals

Author

Listed:
  • Kgosietsile Velempini

    (Department of Environmental Sciences, College of Science and Engineering, University of North Carolina, Wilmington, NC 28403, USA)

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess the role of environmental education to attain the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Environmental education has an interconnection with the SDGs, that constitute 169 targets and 230 indicators. Education is addressed in SDG4; however, education has an extended role in other interconnected areas such as poverty, gender, health and inequality, natural resources, energy, and climate change and variability. This study adopted a survey method and employed a questionnaire, open-ended questions, and critical review of secondary sources. The results from this study reveal interspersed areas played by environmental education in attaining the integrated SDGs and contribute to building awareness on the momentous role of environmental education in producing sustainable pathways for the future. The international environmental education community shares a goal of focusing on environmental education to attain the SDGs. This paper recommends competent mainstreaming of environmental education practices in the school curriculum, lifelong learning settings, and in government and corporation policy frameworks to enable societies to become resilient.

Suggested Citation

  • Kgosietsile Velempini, 2025. "Assessing the Role of Environmental Education Practices Towards the Attainment of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(5), pages 1-20, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:5:p:2043-:d:1600891
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/5/2043/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/5/2043/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sinha, Avik & Sengupta, Tuhin & Alvarado, Rafael, 2020. "Interplay between Technological Innovation and Environmental Quality: Formulating the SDG Policies for Next 11 Economies," MPRA Paper 104247, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2020.
    2. Nhemachena, Charles & Matchaya, Greenwell & Nhemachena, C. R. & Karuaihe, S. & Muchara, B. & Nhlengethwa, Sibusiso, 2018. "Measuring baseline agriculture-related sustainable development goals index for southern Africa," Papers published in Journals (Open Access), International Water Management Institute, pages 10(3):1-16..
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Elizabeth Oluwakemi Ayandibu, 2025. "Impact of entrepreneurship education on students’ understanding of global markets and the productive economy: A literature review," International Journal of Research in Business and Social Science (2147-4478), Center for the Strategic Studies in Business and Finance, vol. 14(8), pages 661-673, December.
    2. Mekonnen Amberber Degefu & Yitayal Addis Alemayehu & Bewketu Mamaru Mengiste, 2026. "Understanding How Secondary School Teachers in Ethiopia Integrate Environmental Education and Circular Economy: Implications for Accelerating SDGs," Circular Economy and Sustainability, Springer, vol. 6(1), pages 1-26, February.
    3. Wei Hou & Qianwen Yang & Yipei Cao & Lei Luo & Jingyi Ding & Qilin Wang & Jun Wei & Hai Ma, 2025. "Impact of Ecological Education on University Students’ Environmentally Sustainable Behavior—Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(13), pages 1-27, July.
    4. Kai-Chao Yao & Fan-Lung Tseng & Chi-Chi Chan, 2025. "Transforming Education: The Impact of Integrating International Education into School Curricula on International Literacy and Learning Attitudes," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(10), pages 1-19, May.
    5. Fortune Aigbe & Clinton Aigbavboa & Lebogang Ayobiojo & Patrick Ehi Imoisili, 2025. "Adaptive Learning for Inclusivity, Sustainable Development, and Societal Impact: A Case Study of Community Engagement at the University of Johannesburg," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(11), pages 1-15, May.
    6. Qingbin Liu & Basirat Olaide Raimi & Abdulrahman Alomair, 2026. "Schooling for Sustainability: Disaggregating the Effects of Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Education on Sustainable Development in the Global South," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 34(2), pages 1914-1935, April.
    7. Busra Agan Celik & Stephen Obinozie Ogwu & Serdar Celik, 2026. "Unraveling the Intricate Impact of Aging and Healthy Life Expectancy on Carbon Productivity in NEXT‐11 Countries," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 34(S1), pages 1043-1066, January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Edith Johana Medina-Hernández & María José Fernández-Gómez, 2024. "Multi-way Analysis of the Gender Dimension of the Sustainable Development Goals," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 172(2), pages 517-541, March.
    2. Karasoy, Alper, 2022. "Is innovative technology a solution to Japan's long-run energy insecurity? Dynamic evidence from the linear and nonlinear methods," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    3. Nisamudheen, P.P. & Shareef, K. Hassan, 2025. "The role of human capital in driving renewable energy and sustainable development in India," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    4. Manal Ammari & Mohammed Chentouf & Mohammed Ammari & Laïla Ben Allal, 2022. "Assessing National Progress in Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals: A Case Study of Morocco," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(23), pages 1-29, November.
    5. Jin Sheng & Avik Sinha & Sadia Mansoor & Muhammad Wasif Zafar, 2025. "Greening the energy future: Role of energy innovation as policy driver," Natural Resources Forum, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 49(2), pages 1424-1444, May.
    6. Sharma, Rajesh & Shahbaz, Muhammad & Sinha, Avik & Vo, Xuan Vinh, 2021. "Examining the temporal impact of stock market development on carbon intensity: Evidence from South Asian countries," MPRA Paper 108925, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2021.
    7. Xu, Deyi & Sheraz, Muhammad & Hassan, Arshad & Sinha, Avik & Ullah, Saif, 2022. "Financial development, renewable energy and CO2 emission in G7 countries: New evidence from non-linear and asymmetric analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    8. Haiqian Ke & Wenyi Yang & Xiaoyang Liu & Fei Fan, 2020. "Does Innovation Efficiency Suppress the Ecological Footprint? Empirical Evidence from 280 Chinese Cities," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(18), pages 1-23, September.
    9. Caglar, Abdullah Emre & Daştan, Muhammet & Avci, Salih Bortecine, 2024. "Persistence of disaggregate energy RD&D expenditures in top-five economies: Evidence from artificial neural network approach," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 365(C).
    10. Cheng, Ya & Sinha, Avik & Ghosh, Vinit & Sengupta, Tuhin & Luo, Huawei, 2021. "Carbon Tax and Energy Innovation at Crossroads of Carbon Neutrality: Designing a Sustainable Decarbonization Policy," MPRA Paper 108185, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2021.
    11. Karmaker, Shamal Chandra & Hosan, Shahadat & Chapman, Andrew J. & Saha, Bidyut Baran, 2021. "The role of environmental taxes on technological innovation," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 232(C).
    12. Amanda Balasooriya & Darshana Sedera, 2025. "Top Management Challenges in Using Artificial Intelligence for Sustainable Development Goals: An Exploratory Case Study of an Australian Agribusiness," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(15), pages 1-19, July.
    13. Wei, Shuxin & Wei, Wenshan & Umut, Alican, 2023. "Do renewable energy consumption, technological innovation, and international integration enhance environmental sustainability in Brazil?," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 202(C), pages 172-183.
    14. Chishti, Muhammad Zubair & Sinha, Avik, 2022. "Do the shocks in technological and financial innovation influence the environmental quality? Evidence from BRICS economies," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    15. Ofori, Pamela E. & Ofori, Isaac K. & Castelnovo, Paolo, 2024. "Effects of Innovation and Economic Freedom on Female Economic Inclusion," MPRA Paper 121244, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Xia, Wanjun & Murshed, Muntasir & Khan, Zeeshan & Chen, Zhenling & Ferraz, Diogo, 2022. "Exploring the nexus between fiscal decentralization and energy poverty for China: Does country risk matter for energy poverty reduction?," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 255(C).
    17. Soumyaranjan Jena & Sayel Basel, 2025. "Classifying Global Economies Based on Sustainable Development Goals: A Data‐Driven Clustering Approach," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(3), pages 4543-4556, June.
    18. Yugang He, 2024. "E-commerce and foreign direct investment: pioneering a new era of trade strategies," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-14, December.
    19. Xiaomeng Zhao & Kangyin Dong & Jun Zhao & Qingzhe Jiang, 2024. "RETRACTED ARTICLE: Paths to sustainable development in China: why green finance and green technology matter?," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 57(2), pages 1-26, April.
    20. Appiah, Michael & Li, Mingxing & Sehrish, Saba & Abaji, Emad Eddin, 2023. "Investigating the connections between innovation, natural resource extraction, and environmental pollution in OECD nations; examining the role of capital formation," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:5:p:2043-:d:1600891. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager The email address of this maintainer does not seem to be valid anymore. Please ask MDPI Indexing Manager to update the entry or send us the correct address (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.