On 24 September, UNICA brought together several representatives from universities, student organisations and educators in Brussels for the project’s final multiplier event, “Skills for a Burning World: The Role of HEIs in Climate Action Recognition.” The event focused on how higher education can better support climate action and sustainability learning through innovative recognition systems.

The event opened with welcoming remarks and a presentation of the OpenPass4Climate (OP4C) project, an Erasmus+ KA2 initiative led by UniLaSalle and partnered by UNICA. The project has developed an Open Badges and Passport system to formally recognise sustainability competences and civic engagement in all education levels, bridging the gap between formal learning and real-world climate action.

The central panel, “Skills for a Burning World,” moderated by Federica Nestola (Project and Policy Officer at UNICA), invited speakers Fatma Fourati-Jamoussi (Lecturer-researcher in Marketing and Strategic Intelligence at UniLaSalle) and Simone Lepore (President of Erasmus Student Network), to reflect on how universities can better acknowledge student contributions to the green transition. 

Opening the discussion, Federica Nestola set the stage by highlighting that climate change is not a distant challenge but a present emergency already reshaping Europe’s ecosystems and societies. She noted that while youth awareness and activism remain strong – supported by data from the EU Youth Report 2024 and recent Eurobarometer findings – education systems have yet to fully respond to this urgency. Traditional curricula often fail to equip students with the interdisciplinary, civic, and practical competences needed to navigate complex sustainability challenges.

Federica underlined the critical role of education as an enabler of climate action, recalling how the European Green Deal and the European Skills Agenda both position learning and upskilling as central to achieving a just and sustainable transition. However, she stressed that much of the most impactful climate learning happens outside formal classrooms – through student projects, civic engagement, and community initiatives – which remain largely invisible within institutional frameworks.

Fatma Fourati-Jamoussi highlighted how OpenPass4Climate represents a pioneering step towards a culture of recognition within European universities. She emphasised that the project’s digital Open Badges and Passport system offer a credible and transferable way to document sustainability competences developed both inside and outside the classroom, and concluded by noting that we need to teach and assess sustainability as whole institutions, guided by shared frameworks that bring together teaching, research, and community engagement. Only by embracing sustainability at 360 degrees can universities truly prepare students to lead the transition toward a just and climate-resilient future.

Simone Lepore offered the student perspective, stressing the importance of inclusive and accessible recognition mechanisms that value civic engagement, volunteering, and activism as integral parts of learning. He noted that students are increasingly aware of the relevance of climate and sustainability competences for their employability, yet universities often lack the tools to formally validate these experiences. He called for stronger collaboration between HEIs and student organisations to co-design recognition systems that reflect the diversity of student learning paths.

The afternoon continued with the presentation of one of the project’s results: a set of policy recommendations for Higher Education institutions, titled “Credentialing Climate Competence in Higher Education: Recognizing Sustainability Learning for a Greener, More Inclusive University System.” The recommendations outline strategic actions for universities, to integrate sustainability competences into curricula and recognition frameworks at institutional, national, and European levels.

The final part of the event featured an open discussion and co-creation session moderated by Inês Cisneiros (Project and Policy Officer at UNICA), where participants exchanged ideas on how to make recognition more credible, accessible, and impactful. Discussions underscored the importance of systemic and intersectoral collaboration between HEIs, students, and external stakeholders from the job market in shaping the future of recognition for climate competences.