Pillar2: Civic Engagement Events (GOLD)

Gold Award — Requirements Overview

There are two valid pathways to this Gold Award. You need to meet one pathway, not both. Read both formal requirements and the examples on this page before deciding which route best describes the achievement you intend to demonstrate.

Examples and ideas

The examples below are intended to help you imagine how either pathway might be achieved. They are not additional requirements, and you do not need to reproduce an existing Climate Academy event.

Autonomy Pathway — examples

This pathway is about taking initiative and responsibility for making a Climate Academy event happen — individually or as part of a small organising team.

Evening Event

Pick a theme, reach out to an expert and mobilise the talents of your Climate Academy group — from public speaking and organisation to music or art.

Thinking through how to pull it all together, build an audience and create lasting and meaningful impact is a wonderful challenge with rewards for everyone involved.

Climate Summit

A full-day Climate Summit offers an immersive experience of learning. Possibilities include VIP or guest speakers, panels, workshops, Q&As, music and art. It also provides a stage for Climate Academy students to speak with clarity and insight from their own systemic understanding.

Behind the scenes are the practical skills of organisation and communication: networking, publicity, coordination and follow-up.

Protest

The democratic right to protest is a powerful and important component of an open society. The Climate Academy was a leading voice in the protest movement begun by Greta Thunberg in 2018, which went on to mobilise millions of people around the world.

Notice the different skills and energies at work in this film of one of the very first school climate protests: organisation with local authorities, media and schools, alongside filming and editing the event itself.

Street Art Festival

The Kalaghoda Art Festival in Mumbai provided a wonderful setting for Climate Academy students and teachers from the VIBGYOR schools to design, create and exhibit huge 3-D murals on climate tipping points and justice.

The whole design process was a rich learning experience. The exhibits generated dialogue between staff, students and the public, supported by handouts and QR codes that encouraged further engagement.

Deep Green Travel

Take the bus or train and travel with your group to an exciting city or deep into nature. The journey may have a sharp purpose — an event, film or writing project, street surveys or outreach to schools — or simply create time for the group to be together.

Whatever the agenda, stepping outside normal rhythms can make resonance possible (see Hartmut Rosa in Chapter 12).

Impact Pathway — examples

This pathway focuses on making a significant, systems-informed contribution within a regional, national or international sustainability event.

EU Parliament Speech

Following the Climate Academy protest outside the EU Commission in November 2018, students were invited to speak to MEPs in the EU Parliament. Clara Sammaritano underlines key points about the CUTx Index and its wider significance.

EU Parliament Speech — Clara Sammaritano

EU Overshoot Day — EU Parliament

In collaboration with Globe EU, the Climate Academy met MEPs and asked key questions about current EU sustainability policies. In 2026, the MEPs being questioned were Manuela Ripa, Bruno Tobback and Sara Matthieu.

Earth Overshoot Day — EU Parliament

Chapter-by-Chapter Support

Not sure which theme to choose for an event, which question to develop, or which expert to invite? These prompts, discussion topics and key questions — one set for each chapter of the Climate Academy Student Book — can help trigger your imagination.

They can help you identify a speaker, develop the angles of your own talk, shape a panel or workshop, or even choose music that fits the theme. Once you have a sense of direction, the details of your event will usually start to take shape.

Your next step

Once you have selected the pathway you intend to follow, continue to the Evidence Requirements page. That next page explains how to demonstrate that you have met the requirement selected here.