Pact2School: engaging young people in climate action

At E.I. Tierra y Libertad school in Spain, young pupils will use their creativity to help create a climate garden with plants, shade structures and biodiversity features, learning about climate and nature through hands-on activities. This activity involves Pact Ambassador Pablo Quero García.

The idea took shape during an awareness-raising session with teachers and around 100 pupils aged 3-5. This put climate change in simple terms, sharing everyday actions that can help fight it. The session also featured a short interactive game and a reading from the book “A Tree” by Rodrigo Mattioli.

In Bulgaria, teenagers at the Papanchev MIR Center will take part in a workshop exploring the environmental impact of menstrual products, working creatively in groups to design more sustainable alternatives. This activity is organised in collaboration with Pact Ambassador Vera Markova.

An online engagement session with teachers and students fed into this activity, building on an existing project on menstrual health. The session looked at the idea of combining discussions on the health, financial and environmental impacts of menstrual products with a practical design workshop.

At CEIP Juan González in Spain, pupils will take part in a session combining discussion and a fun, engaging board game. The activity will explore healthy and sustainable eating and its environmental impact, for example the carbon footprint of local speciality dishes. This activity is supported by Pact Ambassador Aitor Sánchez García.

This initiative started with an engagement session with pupils, families, teachers and a dietician, which explored the challenges of healthy eating, using the game as a practical way to discuss everyday food choices and their environmental impact. Participants also recorded a radio show about the initiative for the school station.

In Greece, pupils at the 7th Experimental Primary School will take part in beach clean-ups and guided climate walks to learn about pollution and its impact on coastal areas. Pupils will share what they learn through drawings, posters or group reflections. This activity is organised in collaboration with Pact Partner Ecogenia.

Through a combination of practical, hands-on environmental action with outdoor learning, observation and reflection, pupils are supported to explore and address real local challenges.

In Hungary, students at Tolna Vármegyei SZC Bezerédj István Technikum will work together to transform their courtyard into a greener space that supports biodiversity and climate action. They will turn it into a hands‑on learning space where they can explore nature while making real changes. This activity involves Pact Ambassador Boglárka Amrein Tamásné Miskolczi. 

An initial engagement session with students, teachers and school staff focused on sustainability and nature, including the role of birds in ecosystems. It featured an interactive card game and a visit to the school garden to get the creative juices flowing.

At Ernst-Habermann-Grundschule in Germany, pupils will work together to create a garden as a ‘climate island’, helping them learn about climate action and local environmental change. The activity will support long‑term learning about climate change and how communities can adapt. This activity is supported by Pact Ambassador Wolfgang Schwarz.

Pupils and teachers initially took part in a session on the demolition of the previous ‘Climate Island’, a nearby oasis of biodiversity. This led to ideas for awareness-raising campaigns and proposals for greener spaces, such as the new climate island.

At Central European University in Austria, students will take part in discussions, workshops and hands-on community activities on sustainability and food-related climate challenges. Students will learn how everyday actions can drive meaningful change and build a strong sense of community. This activity is organised in collaboration with Pact Ambassador Daan Vandenberghe.

A series of engagement sessions led by Daan and his fellow students laid the foundations for this activity, including debates on university food policy, workshops and community cooking events using surplus food.

At IES Joan Miró school in Spain, a series of workshops will see students work together to design and carry out a practical climate project, empowering them to bring climate action into everyday school life. This activity is supported by Pact Ambassador David Sanchez.

Students and teachers started with discussions on the impacts of climate change and possible solutions, which led to the creation of a student-led ‘Planet Team’ to take climate action forward at school.

In Poland, pupils at Szkoła Podstawowa im. Przyjaciół Grochowa will create and care for an organic school garden, take part in workshops on preparing healthy fruit and vegetable snacks, cook using healthy ingredients and help organise a school ‘Veggie Day’. This activity is supported by Pact Ambassador Paula Rapiej.

These ideas came from a first engagement session involving the school’s leadership team, which identified ways to connect climate topics to real everyday choices and involve students through collaborative, practical projects.

Students at Kozármislenyi Janikovszky Éva Általános Iskola in Hungary will create and install shaded areas in the yard using recycled materials. As part of a hands-on climate adaptation activity, students will be involved in the entire process, where they will identify problems and find solutions. This activity is organised in collaboration with Pact Ambassador Boglárka Amrein Tamásné Miskolczi.

The whole school community has already taken part in an initial engagement session and school fair, where they discussed sustainability topics such as recycling, biodiversity and everyday actions.

At CEIP Antonio Machado school in Spain, students will use weather-monitoring tools and conduct creative experiments in their school playground to better understand climate and environmental change through observation and data collection. This activity is supported by Pact Ambassador Pepe Torres.

In an engagement session with students and teachers, the group focused on observing weather and understanding how data can explain climate patterns and support decisions about climate action in everyday environments.

At the University of Patras in Greece, students will work together to reduce food waste by measuring it, understanding its causes through data collection and testing solutions in a classroom setting. This activity is organised in collaboration with Pact Ambassador Maria Voutsina.

University students training as teachers took part in an introductory session that looked at key EU climate and environmental topics. They explored how these topics can be applied in teaching, encouraging future educators to connect policy ideas with practical classroom activities.

At the 13th Primary School of Kalamata in Greece, pupils will take part in an eight-week project to reduce food waste by sorting, measuring and composting food. The project will help pupils develop concrete, long-term habits and make the topic of a circular economy easier to understand. This activity is supported by Pact Ambassador Athanasios Makios.

Pupils have already taken part in a first session to examine food waste and its environmental impact as well as simple ways to reduce it through everyday actions such as better planning and reuse of food.