Building Green Competences for a Resilient Europe: Highlights from the Final Conference of the Climate for All Project

On 26 June 2026, representatives from European institutions, regional authorities, civil society, and non-formal education gathered at the European Committee of the Regions in Brussels for the final conference of the Climate for All project. Organised by the project consortium, the event titled "Climate for All: Building Green Competences for a Resilient Europe" brought together policymakers, youth workers, game designers, and regional stakeholders to celebrate project achievements, explore innovative game-based tools, and discuss actionable pathways for climate education.

The timing couldn't have been more real. Outside, Brussels was melting under an intense heatwave, something everyone in the room quickly started joking about. But behind the laughs, it was a sharp reality check: building climate resilience isn't some distant topic for a future report; it's something we need right now, starting with how we educate and connect with people.

Rather than adhering to the rigid, standard format of a typical Brussels conference, the event unfolded into a warm, open, and authentic dialogue. Panellists and participants engaged in a genuine exchange of ideas, sharing personal perspectives, building on each other’s thoughts, and addressing head-on the systemic challenges of climate action in Europe today.

A New "Gospel" for Climate Action: Opening Remarks

The event opened with energetic, grounded remarks from Ioannis Anastasakis, Vice Governor for Climate Change and Urban Mobility in the Region of Crete (Greece), who served as a key institutional guest representing regional governance. Addressing the fundamental question of political drive, he reflected on the sacrifices involved in public leadership and the courage needed to drive real change.

Using the metaphor of a Rubik’s Cube, Anastasakis argued that the solution to complex crises is not to segregate colors into isolated silos, but to mix them, bringing every sector together in genuine cooperation. He called on institutions to "put a foot on the brake" of unsustainable development and take time to explain complex issues simply. Drawing a parallel to historical parables and gospels, he emphasized that core messages must be communicated through simple, relatable stories that everyone, even a child, can understand:

"We need to describe the basic scientific data, how it evolves, and how it affects everyone, so citizens are empowered to vote for the right policies. We don't need everybody at once; we need a critical mass, an internal flame. We must activate our survival instinct, stop, rethink, and cooperate, starting with our youth."

Following the opening, Antonios Triantafyllakis (Head of Learning at All for Climate ASBL and Project Coordinator) walked participants through the journey of the Climate for All project, highlighting its methodology anchored in the European Commission's GreenComp framework and presenting the six educational games created to empower local communities.

High-Level Panel: Dialogue on Competences, Systems, and Trust

The central segment of the event was a lively panel discussion titled “Building Climate-Resilient Citizens Through Competence-Based Learning,” moderated by Antonios Triantafyllakis.

Opening Impressions: What Does the Title Evoke?

To set an informal, conversational tone, the moderator asked each speaker for their immediate association with the panel title:

• Patrycja Gas-Janczukowicz: Lived learning
• Laura McDermott: Behavioral design and designing for behavioral change
• Sophia Queckenberg: Understanding what resilience truly means in practice
• Monica Pisani: People actively creating a resilient future
• Ioannis Anastasakis: Inclusivity as it’s for All

Insights from the Panelists

• Sophia Queckenberg (European Commission, DG EAC) Addressing whether projects bridging education and climate action have to survive despite the system or because of it, Sophia emphasised that sustainability is inherently cross-cutting and interdisciplinary. Working directly at the intersection of education and sustainability, she pointed to real inter-departmental collaboration such as co-organizing events across the European Climate Pact, European Youth Week, and joint initiatives on climate preparedness, heatwaves, biodiversity, and eco-anxiety. While acknowledging that the Commission is a massive institution where systemic processes move slowly, she stressed that genuine synergies thrive through passionate, motivated teams building lasting human connections across policy sectors.
• Monica Pisani (European Commission, DG CLIMA) Monica showcased the European Climate Pact as a key mechanism introducing the human dimension into the climate transition. With over 1,200 ambassadors and 100 pact partners across health, environmental, and educational NGOs, the Pact reaches communities that are not yet engaged. She noted that the main gap is not between awareness and action, but in building systemic participation. Using GreenComp as a compass, citizens shift from being passive beneficiaries to active co-creators of change.
• Laura McDermott (Colectivo / IE Business School) Wearing her hats as both a business school educator and a sustainability designer, Laura addressed how design methods foster critical thinking. She highlighted that society is currently flooded with an abundance of climate data, leading to the behavioural "ostrich effect", where people hide their heads when overwhelmed by information. To overcome this, she applied the behavioral EAST Model (making action Easy, Attractive, Social, and Timely). She praised the project's games for making complex issues tangible and creating a welcoming social community for facilitators.
• Patrycja Gas-Janczukowicz (Nausika Foundation) Patrycja focused on futures literacy and envisioning sustainable futures. She pointed out that traditional education remains heavily fact-oriented and focused on single correct answers, whereas futures literacy explores multiple alternative perspectives. Citing a Eurydice report analyzing 39 European education systems, she revealed that while systems thinking is widely covered, envisioning futures is absent in over 40% of European educational systems. The main bottleneck is teacher training and a lack of participatory methodologies. Sharing an example from a youth exchange in Berlin, she demonstrated how game-based roleplay allows participants to step into others' shoes, feel empathy, and truly grasp complex realities.
• Monica Pisani (Added Reflection) Building on Patrycja's point, Monica added why games are irreplaceable: information alone is not enough. Games break down overwhelming systemic complexity into bite-sized, tangible steps while providing a collective, social environment that translates awareness into real action.
• Ioannis Anastasakis (Region of Crete) Highlighting the gap between academic research and public policy, Ioannis shared an anecdote: when asking what research had been done on climate change in Crete over the last five years, he was presented with over 400 studies sitting unexploited in drawers. Researchers had completed the cycle—doing the study, publishing it, holding a small presentation, adding it to their CVs, and moving on. He stressed that research must actually inform public policy, which requires reaching society through the channels people actually use, including social media, TikTok, and influencers. Reflecting on governance habits, he also playfully called out politicians who deliver formal greetings and immediately leave, half-jokingly suggesting that event doors should be locked so decision-makers stay in the room, listen to citizens, and participate in real debate.

Experiential Showcase & Participatory Workshop

Participants tested micro-demonstrations of all six Climate for All games (Spirit Path, Echoes of Gaia, GREENWASH!, It’s Election Day!, The Elephant in the Room, and SOLARPUNKs), guided directly by their original designers.

The final part of the event transitioned into an interactive Action-Mapping Session led directly by Antonios Triantafyllakis. Engaging the entire room in an open, collective brainstorming session, Antonios posed probing questions directly to the audience and mapped their insights on a flipchart. Together, participants linked the GreenComp competences experienced during gameplay to real-world climate challenges, identified key stakeholders, and charted concrete, practical steps designed to drive tangible resilience directly within local communities.

Looking Ahead

As Climate for All concludes in 2026, it leaves behind an open-access legacy: six fully tested educational games, a facilitator training curriculum, and a network of over 300 trained educators across Europe. The event closed with a shared realisation that while institutions provide the framework, it is human connections, non-formal youth work, and experiential tools that bring climate resilience to life.

Report by Patrycja Gas-Janczukowic
Coordination by Antonios Triantafyllakis

This event was co-funded by the European Union as part of the Erasmus+ project "Climate for All - Games for Education on Sustainability" and hosted by the European Committee of the Regions. Views and opinions expressed are, however, those of the authors only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them. The Committee of the Regions is not responsible for the content of this event.