National Forum Explores Climate-Ready Education for Future Professionals
From February 2 to 5, 2026, the Climate Institute convened nearly 300 participants for a national virtual forum, Designing Climate-Ready Education for the Next Generation of Professionals. This was the second national forum under the Accelerating Climate Education (ACE) project.
Supported by Natural Resources Canada’s Climate Adaptation Program, the four-day forum brought together postsecondary instructors, education developers, practitioners, professional bodies, and students from across Canada and beyond. Participants examined how climate competencies can be embedded into professional degree programs in accounting, architecture, landscape architecture, planning, and engineering.
Across the four days, 29 presenters from institutions nationwide shared examples of how they are integrating climate competencies into curricula and experimenting with innovative teaching practices. Presentations and discussions explored approaches to building hope, agency, and compassion among students in professional degree programs, while creating space for meaningful dialogue across disciplines.
The forum opened with a plenary address by University of Waterloo’s Dr. Elder Myeengun Henry, who underscored the importance of kindness, relationship-building, and connection to the land in this work. These themes echoed throughout the event, as educators reflected on how to engage students in climate learning while remaining attentive to the emotional dimensions of the climate crisis.
Participant feedback highlighted the forum’s value as a space for cross-disciplinary connection and exchange, with many noting the need for additional opportunities to explore practical changes to syllabi and expand interdisciplinary teaching and learning.
Here are some of the key themes that emerged across the sessions:
Mainstream climate education across core curriculum: Participants felt that climate competencies must be integrated throughout required courses, rather than be treated as specialized electives. This includes weaving climate considerations into introductory courses, core methods and technical courses, and capstone experiences, ensuring all graduates have foundational climate literacy regardless of their specific career paths.
Address climate emotions with compassion and action: Students experience significant climate anxiety, which can pose a great barrier to effective learning. To address this, pedagogy must acknowledge these emotions while providing tangible tools, local projects, and opportunities for meaningful action that can help build confidence and agency. Applied learning through real-world partnerships, community engagement, and experiential projects helps students move from feeling overwhelmed to feeling empowered.
Cultivate interdisciplinary collaboration as a core competency: Climate change is fundamentally a teamsport requiring professionals who can work across disciplines. As such, education must prepare students to understand what different professions contribute, ask relevant questions, and collaborate effectively rather than attempting to mast all competencies individually. This can include creating opportunities for interdisciplinary studios, capstones, and real-world projects.
Ground learning in relationships and place: Meaningful climate education requires connection (to land, to communities, to real clients, and to stakeholders). Whether through land-based pedagogies or partnershipswith municipalities and Indigenous communities, proximity creates responsibility and allows students to see themselves as part of a bigger system. This relational approach can strengthen both motivation and understanding.
Center student voices and leadership: Students are not just the recipients of climate education, but they are active agents of change. Amplifying student feedback, holding space for student input in curriculum design, recognizing student-led initiatives and supporting student advocacy all strengthen both educational programs and the broader movement towards climate action.
Perhaps most importantly, the forum demonstrated the power of bringing disciplines together. Climate change is an intersectional challenge, and by connecting educators across disciplines, the forum fostered not only shared resources but a shared sense of possibility—and responsibility—for preparing professionals to build climate-resilient communities. Many participants emphasized the need for more opportunities like this to connect and collaborate.
The next step is implementation: applying these insights in our classrooms, programs, and institutions; amplifying student voices and agency in curriculum design; and strengthening networks for sharing resources and syllabi, so that climate education becomes central—not peripheral—to professional preparation in universities and colleges.
The ACE project is supporting a growing community of practice advancing climate-ready professional education. We welcome you to connect with us to amplify your work in our newsletter, webinars, collaborative events, and at the next national forum, scheduled for late 2026.