Educators as Mission Architects Climate Education, Polycrisis, and Teacher Agency toward 2030

This satellite event, held under the European Climate Pact, is designed as a high-level policy–education dialogue that positions education and more specifically teachers as mission-oriented actors for climate action, sustainability, and systemic well-being toward 2030. The event is articulated around two complementary interventions by Climate Pact Ambassador Mabille Alexandre, delivered within the framework of the international conference Bridging Well-being and (Teacher) Education: A Globalised Perspective to Science Diplomacy (23–26 February 2026, New York), co-organised by EUniWell and Teachers College, Columbia University.

The first intervention situates climate education within the broader context of polycrisis (climate, social inequality, democratic fragility, economic transition). It introduces a mission-oriented perspective on education, drawing on EU policy logic, Mission-Oriented Innovation (Mazzucato), and MIT REAP, to argue that teachers must be understood not only as educators, but as ecosystem architects capable of linking policy, markets, science, and communities. This contribution frames education as a form of climate action infrastructure, essential to long-term resilience and collective agency. The second intervention focuses on teacher well-being, multilingualism, and educational diplomacy as structural conditions for sustainable climate engagement. It reframes multilingualism as a foundation for professional recognition, belonging, and institutional legitimacy, showing how teacher well-being is strengthened when linguistic and intercultural dimensions are embedded at the ecosystem level.

This perspective connects directly to climate education by demonstrating how trust, identity, and intercultural capacity enable educators to operate effectively in contested, international, and policy-relevant contexts. Both interventions are grounded in operational research and concrete initiatives led in HEPH-Condorcet and abroad, including Policylabs, Climate Labs, and international education projects that function as boundary spaces between science, policy, and society. Together, they offer a coherent narrative: teacher agency, well-being, and climate action are inseparable when education is designed as a mission-driven system rather than a collection of isolated projects.

The event aligns fully with the objectives of the European Climate Pact by promoting empowered citizenship, cross-sector collaboration, and long-term systemic transformation. It aims to generate transferable insights, shared policy language, and strategic orientations for European institutions, education systems, and climate actors seeking to strengthen climate education and teacher well-being in an integrated and future-oriented manner.