Sustainable development cannot be achieved without education and higher public awareness, says a senior UNESCO official.

Tang Qian, assistant director-general for education of UNESCO, spoke with Xinhua in the run-up to the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) slated for June 20-22 in Rio de Janeiro.

The United Nations in 2002 proclaimed the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development, 2005-2014, (DESD), emphasizing education as an indispensable element for achieving sustainable development, Tang said.

As the lead agency to promote and implement the DESD, UNESCO has formulated an implementation plan, coordinating efforts from various countries to reorient education towards sustainable development, Tang said.

"One of its tasks is to help relevant countries to introduce the subject of sustainable development into the curricula of their primary and secondary schools," he said.

At Rio+20, UNESCO will organize a side event on the theme of "Educating for a sustainable future." At the event, experts and policy-makers from around the world will discuss the role of education in their respective strategies for sustainable development, Tang said.

"In 2014 when the DESD is to expire, UNESCO will hold a conference on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in Japan to mark the contributions education has made for sustainable development and work out a plan for future actions," the UNESCO official said.

Tang noted that governments have made remarkable efforts but that there still is much more to do.

"In a country, policy-makers and the broad mass alike need to build awareness of sustainable development," he said.

Tang said that China has actively engaged in the DESD, adding sustainable development-related courses to its elementary education curricula and staging campus activities on the theme.