**1. Introduction**

Education for global citizenship is presented as an opportunity within the framework of the 2030 Agenda to promote solidarity, justice and equality in Higher Education Institutions. It is a totally disruptive proposal that offers alternatives and that is the result of an international consensus around economic, social and environmental development and the affirmation of peace and security as an essential pillar of development [1].

Higher education institutions [2] should favor the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (SD) approved at the United Nations, and one way to promote in the student an awareness of sustainability a ccompetence-based model so that they can solve the many challenges they will encounter in their career fields. In addition, the university must constitute a turning point between the relations manifested between citizens and the role of the State, based on its eclectic capacity and adaptability to social needs and its role as a transforming entity and promoter of change within the great challenges of the sustainable development and existing processes of discrimination or social exclusion [3].

The advancement of scientific knowledge, technology and innovation constitute a cross-cutting objective for SD within the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development [4].

The curricular or academic sustainability does not involve only include environmental content in the agenda, involves one series of changes that include aspects such as those proposed Ull, MA [5]:


According to Fernández-Sánchez, G & al. [6], the deployment model curriculum sustainability is an important support in the technique of project - based learning (PBL) encouraging students to develop attitudes, skills and knowledge to make it as professionals committed to SD.

This path towards the sustainability of Higher Education Institutions cannot be followed if the concept of globalization is not included. The education is not can escape globalization processes. Globalization has impacted on different areas, the educational field being one of them, indeed, we could say that the phenomenon that has the greatest impact on the educational field is globalization, which includes within itself the advances of new Information Technologies and Communication (ICT), as well as social and cultural changes [7].

According to Fazio, H [8], no brief explanation covers the wide range of real, discursive, imaginary and symbolic contents that the concept of globalization entails and to which it can be alluded. Globalization involves the expansion and intensification of social, economic and political relations across regions and continents [9].

In this sense, Piana et al. [10] define globalization as a contemporary phenomenon determined from its multidimensionality, which allows the generation of new spaces and, therefore, new spaces adapted to a new reality, generating the need to identify concepts that adapt to a changing society, with the possibility of

*Globalization and Education: Trends towards Sustainability DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.99974*

establishing a relationship between local development and the dynamics proposed from the global scope.

But it is true that the globalization process is experiencing a profound crisis that calls into question the supposed advantages offered by its paradigms. The commercial opening, the control of inflation and the public deficit, as well as the thinning of the states and the dominance of the market; they have only exacerbated poverty and income concentration [11].

Therefore, notes Martinez, E. [12] in their article "Ethics of development in a globalized world", in an irreversibly globalized world, development ethics points out the main arguments, concepts and principles that can guide development policies within countries and also in international relations. Since it was born in the 1960s, development ethics have largely driven the transition from an initially very poor development concept to the current complex concept of sustainable human development.

In this context, the key question [13] is, how universities can contribute to better positioning themselves in relation to globalization? The answer is multiple:

	- Prepare more citizens to assimilate more knowledge and to participate in a process of permanent and rapid change.
	- Improve human capital, training more scientists and engineers strongly imbued with values.
	- Improve the employability of graduates, giving them an education that encourages entrepreneurial vocation and those prepared to contribute to the innovation process.
	- Strengthen research: more research and better quality.
	- Strengthen the connection between innovation and business.
	- Support the creation of technology-based companies through "incubators" and other mechanisms
	- Support the technological improvement of existing companies and sectors through systematic technology transfer programs.
	- Contribute to local and regional strategies for the development of the territory in contemporary times (knowledge plus values).

Tools such as service learning in international cooperation projects are shown to improve the acquisition of skills related to sustainability by the student. The link between service learning and Education for Sustainable Development empowers the student with a deep analysis of poverty, its origin and its link with SD and the importance of adopting alternatives to face the change of unsustainable lifestyles [14].

One of the aspects to be addressed when talking about globalization, sustainability and education is mobility. The different options that you choose at each point of the planet are the subject of deep reflection.

Most of the proposals for urban mobility are based on the correlation given by UN-Habitat, which dictates the guidelines of the city of tomorrow and how to correct those of the present. These are visions from developed countries that they want to impose on those who are underdeveloped. The underlying logic is simple: facilitate the movement of people and goods for production, in countries where there is a risk that their urban systems will collapse, and their commercial interests will be affected. Hence, the proposals, which come closest to promoting subjective wellbeing, such as creating walkable cities, come from and are implemented in developed countries such as the Nordic ones. While, for poor countries, "sustainable" urban mobility models are imposed on them, based on collective transport [15].

In the documentary "Road to School", directed by Plisso, P [16] is the true story of four children, heroes everyday narrates - *Jackson, Carlitos, Zahira and Samue who* must deal daily with a multitude of adversities and dangers to get to school. These children live in four distant corners of the earth, but they share the same desire to learn and are aware that only education will s open doors to a better future.

The images of "On the way to school" are shocking due to the strong contrast they suppose in front of the western day life, since in our society we are accustomed to seeing parents driving their children to the door of the school itself, or in his defect accompanying them by the hand or leaving them at the foot of a school bus. None of this exists in the four cases documented by Pascal Pliso in the savannas of Kenya, in the vastness of Patagonia, in the rugged Atlas Mountains and on the winding coasts of India. At the four points, distant from each other, these schoolchildren leave their home very early every morning to make a long journey on foot, on horseback or even in a wheelchair, and thus get to the nearest school. The distances traveled range from four to twenty kilometers and the average duration is between an hour and a half and four hours [17].

A similar case is the one reported by the organization "Céntimos Solidarios" with the acquisition of a vehicle for school transportation for boys and girls from 7 rural communities in Alta Verapaz, Guatemala. The remoteness of some communities from the school it hinders access to education and food that is provided. Some of these children must walk in adverse situations, due to the orography and climate of the place, up to more than 4 hours a day accompanied by their mothers. The acquisition of a vehicle will improve the educational and nutritional development of, initially, 75 boys and girls from 7 villages with a predominantly indigenous population, very impoverished. The schooling of these children is a fundamental tool to get out of the cycle of poverty and exploitation to which they and their families are subjected. The improvement of mobility, with the implementation of adequate school transport, will favor the access and permanence of boys and girls in school.

Save the Children focuses, in its annual report "The Mundia State l Mothers" education of girls as a way to ensure a healthy and prosperous future for all children, the report stresses the need urgently to attend the 58 million girls out of school. The report highlights that there have been countries that have successfully tackled the problem of girls' schooling, thus demonstrating that effective solutions to this challenge can be found, even in the world's poorest countries.

It is worth highlighting the article in the newspaper "El País" entitled "This is how the life of cars is lengthened while that of humans is shortened" Pskowski, M [18] where it is pointed out that when rich countries tighten the regulations on emissions from vehicles, many are exported to the global South. And with them, pollution. Some of the highest air pollution levels are recorded in small countries like Guatemala, Bolivia and Honduras. They all share several characteristics: poor

#### *Globalization and Education: Trends towards Sustainability DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.99974*

public transport systems, low purchasing power and the absence of strict regulation of vehicle emissions. Of the 15 Latin American countries analyzed in a report by the Council for the Defense of Natural Resources published in 2014, only seven had regulations on PM2.5.

A report published in July 2018 by the New Delhi Center for Science and Environment (CSE) pointed to "*tartanas"* that are exported to underdeveloped countries in Asia and Africa as the main source of air pollution. in those areas. The report calls the practice a form of "toxic dumping," and recommends that developed countries apply stricter controls on the vehicles they export. The CSE report recommends that developed countries limit the age of the vehicles they sell and take steps to ensure that obsolete cars are scrapped or recycled rather than sent to other countries.

In a globalized economy, both developed and underdeveloped countries have a role to play in reducing emissions from the transport sector. Enjoying a clean environment is a human right, but people in developing countries are too often short of breath [18].

As Barkin, D. [19] points out, in the world, poor people are accused of destroying their environments. These accusations, then, justify the policies that later threaten the very existence of traditional social groups and their productive systems. Their inability to adapt is evidence that reinforces the idea that these groups are the cause of social and economic backwardness in rural areas. Even in the most modern societies, "blaming the victim" for their own situation and their lack of collective progress is a common phenomenon. The poor plunder the land not because of their callous waste of resources, but because of the lack of an equitable distribution of available social wealth and the ruthless way in which the rich and powerful defend their control. The disparity in the prevailing social and productive systems is leading to disaster. With rising unemployment and discrimination against smallscale rural producers, environmental degradation is proceeding rapidly.

Therefore, the question, are developed countries to blame for environmental degradation? and, therefore underdeveloped countries do you have the right to pollute more? These issues raised Pérez-Blanco, CD [20] question the model of extensive growth that is taking place in certain countries and regions, which in some cases is destroying the wealth of these regions and their future prospects development (overexploitation of water resources and non-renewable energy mix in the newly industrialized countries; desertification and overexploitation of forest resources in failed African states; deforestation in large emerging states). Should we not question whether poor countries should have the same right to pollute (or more) than the rich (assuming that the right to pollute any), but if a model of aggressive growth with the environment report to those some benefit beyond the short term or, on the contrary, it will condition its possibilities for future development.

Another of the key aspects in terms of sustainability are those related to the management of water resources and sanitation networks. Access to drinking water and basic sanitation at the rural level is a challenge for many countries. Regarding the origin of the water, groundwater is considered as the hidden scaffold that underpins much of modern life. Around the world, almost 40% of the food we grow is irrigated with water extracted from the earth's subsoil [21].

Without water there is no health. No education. Nor equality between the sexes. Can that some of these relationships is not to obvious, but all there. The first is perhaps the clearest: the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that for every dollar invested in drinking water supplies, between 3 and 34 are saved in sanitation . The hours that minors spend transporting this liquid instead of going to school explains the second. The fact that it is women who usually carry the burden of providing for their communities after endless journeys in search of wells or rivers clarifies the third. And they are just three examples: agriculture, energy, nutrition, infant mortality has a close relationship with water. Without it there is no development or a way out of poverty [22].

In this sense, according to Pulido, A [23], the question to ask is whether the use of groundwater is compatible with the sustainable development of a region? Is it overexploitation? The answer is not easy given the wide variety of circumstances that may exist. Now, there are many cases in which overexploitation is the only solution while other resources arrive, coming from other basins or of diverse origin (desalination of marine waters, brackish waters, …). Numerous aquifers around the world are subject to exploitation because of increased demand for agricultural and domestic use.

If the overexploitation of aquifers can be considered as something necessary and justifiable under certain circumstances, what is critical in this equation is the lack of sanitation networks. Getting water to any corner of the planet could become a useless effort if the waste generated by its inhabitants contaminates it. The problem of sanitation is twofold: on the one hand, it requires more complex infrastructures; on the other, investments are less visible, according to Aziza Akhmouch, director of the OECD's Water Governance program: "When a politician, a mayor, for example, brings drinking water to a population where there was none, recognition is immediate and the revenue, too. Sanitation is a second stage that is more complicated to implement but has a great impact, since its absence pollutes the aquifers and affects the health of the communities" [22].

Another sector that is considered key when it comes to sustainability and globalization is electricity. Although the overall electrification rate continues to rise, with more than one 89% of the world population with access to a reliable source of electricity, it is estimated that there are still about 840 million people who lack this service.

In developed countries there is a boom in the development, manufacture and use of clean and renewable energies. But this does not happen in poor or underdeveloped countries that continue with the old scheme in their energy matrix based on oil, gas and coal and, as happens in very poor areas, the use of waste plastics to light the kitchen and make the food. Not only that they invest little in increasing their power capacity which is not only essential for economic development but to improve the quality of life of its population, but they are wrong when they do. It is common to hear that in Latin America or Asia it is planned to build a new coal plant.

One fact that calls for reflection is that the 19.5 million inhabitants of New York consume the same electricity in a year as the 791 million of sub-Saharan Africa. Secure access to modern energy sources is the foundation on which the prosperity of advanced economies rests. In these, the energy debate revolves around the security of supply and the decarbonization of the mix, while in many other countries the priority is to have enough energy to satisfy the basic needs of its inhabitants. Not surprisingly, access to affordable and reliable energy services is essential to reduce poverty, improve health, increase productivity, increase competitiveness and promote economic growth [24].

Poor countries must use and exploit renewable energy to improve the quality of life of their population, combat climate change and achieve sustainable economic development.

And finally, this document analyses the impact of construction. The construction technology institute maintains that around 2 tons of raw materials are needed per square meter of home construction, that the amount of energy needed to obtain these raw materials represents the energy consumption of a family in 12 years and that construction and demolition waste represents more than one ton per year per inhabitant.

*Globalization and Education: Trends towards Sustainability DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.99974*

According to Rodriguez, L et to the [25] the construction sector it generates a significant impact on the means by resource consumption and waste generated and, therefore, is a sector with high responsibility in the context of sustainability. A sustainable architecture begins from its design, including as determining variables of its production the forms of consumption, use of soil resources, energy, water and the selection of the appropriate materials for each typology and ecosystem where they are developed.

In this context this document tries to relate sustainable mobility, management of water resources, energy and construction models economic environmental and social globalization, technological innovation, education and political realities, countries, where economic capacity determines decisions in these areas and the way to face the challenges that arise.
