This article presents and discusses some results of the authors' analysis of international and national institutional documents related to environmental education from the 1970s to the present day. The aim of the study is to present a critical characterization of how environmental education is conceptualized and introduced through the ongoing worldwide educational reform movement. The results presented in this article highlight the influence of the globalized and globalizing international political program for sustainable development on national educational proposals. The shift from the previous institutional discourse related to environmental education towards a more explicit economicist view of the world is discussed. The purpose of this article is to stimulate discussion about some of the foundations upon which educational policies and other national initiatives related to environmental education rest, and to introduce elements that could enrich their conceptual and ethical dimensions. (Contains 1 note.)