From Climate Emotions to Shared Responsibility: Education for Climate Justice and Collective Action
As part of the Learning Planet Festival, an online panel titled From Climate Emotions to Shared Responsibility: Education for Climate Justice and Collective Action brought together educators, researchers, and practitioners from across the globe to examine a critical but often underexplored dimension of climate education: the role of emotions in shaping learning, responsibility, and collective climate action.
Young people today experience a wide range of emotions as they confront accelerating environmental crises and deepening social inequities. Concern, frustration, grief, anger, hope, solidarity, and care frequently coexist. Rather than framing these emotions as either positive or negative, the panel invited participants to understand emotions as signals—invitations to pause, regulate, reflect, and make ethical choices. This framing positions emotions not as obstacles to learning, but as powerful entry points for Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), social and emotional learning (SEL), and climate justice education.
Emotions as Drivers of Climate Action
The discussion was grounded in a growing body of research showing that climate activism is deeply emotional and motivated by complex value systems. Young people engage in climate action through street protests, school walkouts, grassroots organizing, and global movements such as Fridays for Future. Research by Martiskainen et al. (2020) highlights that these actions are driven by both altruistic values—such as equity, justice, peace, and care for the Earth—and, at times, more self-centered or hedonic motivations. Recognizing this emotional diversity helps educators move beyond simplistic narratives of “good” or “bad” emotions and instead focus on how emotions are shaped, regulated, and channeled into action.
Importantly, participation in climate activism can also foster positive developmental outcomes. Nutkiewicz et al. (2023) show that collective climate action often involves planning, impulse control, and positive risk-taking, strengthening self-regulation skills while enhancing well-being through shared purpose. This emphasis on collective well-being, rather than individual achievement alone, challenges dominant individualistic models of education—particularly in contexts where personal success is often disconnected from collective responsibility.
Panel Focus and Guiding Question
Moderated by Radhika Iyengar (Center for Sustainable Development, Climate School, Columbia University), the panel explored the central question:
What pathways help us understand which emotions drive climate action, and how can education foster pro-environmental behavior through classroom and community-based learning?
The conversation examined how climate emotions are expressed differently across cultural and geographic contexts, and how lived experiences—particularly in climate-vulnerable communities—shape emotional responses and pathways to action.
Insights from Global Practice and Research
Laureline Simon, Founder and Director of One Resilient Earth, shared insights from European-led initiatives and introduced the CLARITY toolbox, which supports educators in helping learners recognize emotions as information. Rather than rushing to action, the toolbox emphasizes intentional pauses for reflection and regulation, enabling learners to make thoughtful and regenerative choices in the face of climate uncertainty.
Kehkashan Basu, Founder-President of the Green Hope Foundation, connected climate justice with social and emotional learning through examples from grassroots work in 28 countries. Her reflections highlighted how intersectional approaches—centering women, youth, and marginalized communities—translate emotions such as empathy, anger, and hope into sustained climate justice action. She emphasized that SEL becomes transformative when it is rooted in lived realities and collective struggle.
Runa Khan, Founder and Executive Director of Friendship, brought perspectives from Bangladesh, where climate change is an everyday lived experience rather than an abstract future threat. Drawing on Friendship’s community-based climate adaptation work, she illustrated how relational emotions—care, mutual dependence, and responsibility to future generations—emerge organically in collective learning spaces. These emotions challenge Global North narratives that overemphasize individual behavior change, instead foregrounding dignity, solidarity, and shared survival.
Dominic Regester, Director of Education at Salzburg Global Seminar, reflected on intergenerational learning and nature-based education. He argued that education systems have often overlooked the role of nature and intergenerational relationships in helping learners process the emotional impacts of the climate crisis. Reconnecting learners to both natural systems and elder wisdom, he suggested, can support emotional resilience and long-term stewardship.
Gaëll Mainguy, Executive Director of the Learning Planet Institute, discussed how social and emotional learning is embedded within LPI’s training programs, which integrate research, collective intelligence, and social entrepreneurship. He highlighted how climate-related emotions are intentionally addressed through systemic learning approaches that connect personal reflection with collective transformation.
Toward Shared Responsibility
Across contexts, the panel reinforced a central insight: education for climate justice must intentionally engage emotions—not suppress them. Emotions are shaped by culture, place, and lived experience, and when acknowledged and supported through education, they can foster relational responsibility toward communities, ecosystems, and future generations.
The session concluded with a dynamic audience Q&A and a call to action inviting participants to share resources, tools, and practices. These contributions will be collated as part of the panel’s ongoing knowledge-sharing efforts.
Moving Forward
As climate anxiety and uncertainty continue to rise, the panel underscored the importance of designing educational spaces that cultivate reflection, empathy, solidarity, and collective agency. Education that integrates emotions, values, and action offers a pathway not only toward climate literacy, but toward climate justice and collective well-being.
The organizers extend their gratitude to the Learning Planet Institute—particularly Olivier Brechard—for convening this timely conversation, and to all speakers and participants for their insights and shared commitment to transforming education for a sustainable and just future.