UfM Higher Education Stakeholders’ Meeting: Greening education in the Mediterranean, a cross-cutting challenge for universities

26-27 June 2025, Girona. In preparation for the upcoming Ministerial Conference, the UfM, in collaboration with UNIMED – the Mediterranean Universities Union, and the University of Girona, will organize consultations and a meeting for academic leaders and experts in June 2025, specifically focusing on greening education.

These sessions will address greening curricula, teacher training, and the capacities of higher education systems. They will serve to prepare an advocacy paper for a Euromed University Alliance for Climate Action and Greening Education to be launched at COP30; once the Alliance is formally established, funding should be secured for specific actions – such as mandatory courses, joint master’s degrees, researcher mobility, and common research initiatives.

Greening higher education is an essential step to equip students and researchers with practical knowledge and skills to address sustainability challenges and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Empowering youth to create a sustainable future is critical for preserving the planet and educating future responsible citizens. Despite the vast knowledge about current environmental challenges, there is still a lack of a holistic, systematic approach to education in this area.

Greening curricula, in particular, involves integrating ideas, concepts, principles, and approaches from various disciplines into both curricula and extracurricular activities. In 2023, the UfM launched a Public Consultation targeting the main Higher Education institutions and networks in the Euro-Mediterranean area. The goal was to receive input from interested parties to advance cooperation in higher education in the region. This consultation was conducted in preparation for a Ministerial Conference aimed at laying the foundations for renewed regional cooperation in higher education. The consultation covered six topics, including greening education; among others, Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) stressed the importance of promoting a cross-cutting approach for integrating SDGs and climate-related topics in curricula and training in HEIs, and of facilitating cross-border and interdisciplinary research collaboration to address common challenges related to sustainability and the environment.