18-02-2025
CliVEx: Climate Justice in 2024
“Engaging in discussions with people from diverse backgrounds allowed me to reflect on my own values, privileges, and responsibilities in addressing environmental and social challenges.”
“Climate Virtual ExChange: Enhancing Climate Awareness in Europe and the Southern Mediterranean Area,” (CliVEx) is an initiative dedicated to fostering a vibrant intercultural dialogue between students from diverse backgrounds in Europe and the Southern Mediterranean region around the crucial issue of climate change.
Our primary goal is to raise climate awareness, transcending geographical and linguistic barriers. CliVEx provides a unique platform for students to engage in discussions, share experiences, and collaborate on climate-related issues. We aim to deepen the understanding of climate change’s multifaceted dimensions and to inspire a global perspective on this challenge.
The Sharing Perspectives Foundation primarily contributes to CliVEx with a dialogue-based virtual exchange called: Climate Justice: From Inequality to Inclusion, a 10-week interactive, international, online learning experience about one of humanity’s biggest challenges: Finding just and inclusive ways to respond to the climate crisis. Climate Justice is held 5 times, over 5 consecutive semesters from Spring 2024 until the Spring 2026.
As we are at the start of 2025, it’s a good moment to look back at the two iterations of Climate Justice held in the Spring and Fall semesters of 2024.
Participation
“A completion rate of 39% / 70% is high for an online course. Regular online courses have completion rates between 5-15%.“
Over the first two iterations, we had 806 students who registered for the course, of which 318 (39%), successfully completed the programme, achieving the minimal participation requirements of attending 8 out of 10 dialogue sessions and obtaining at least 40 points. If we look at the percentage of students who successfully complete the Climate Justice virtual exchange of students who attended at least one synchronous meeting, the completion rate jumps to 70%.
A completion rate of 39% / 70% is high for an online course. Regular online courses have completion rates between 5-15%. Admittedly, the Climate Justice virtual exchange isn’t a regular online course. Climate Justice has elements that are proven to increase completion rates, such as its paced structure, involving deadlines and moments for required attendance, combining synchronous with asynchronous learning elements, and involving teamwork between participants (and thus creates peer-pressure to complete the programme). That said, the virtual exchange course bears no cost to the participant and there is not an application process participants need to complete in order to be admitted, two mechanisms known to be the most effective to increase participation and completion rates of online courses. A 70% completion rate of students who actually start the course is thus a great score, even considering the innovative format of the virtual exchange.
Besides a limited number of students who are not affiliated to any of our partner institutions, most students (97%) in the Climate Justice virtual exchange participate through one of our partner universities. Our partners have actively supported the climate justice programme by integrating the learning experience into their curricula and offering credits to students who successfully complete the programme. The list of participating partners and corresponding number of students they recruited in the Climate Justice virtual exchange are presented in the table below.
| Partner | Registered participants | Participants completed successfully |
| An Najah University – Palestine | 62 | 43 (69%) |
| Bethlehem University – Palestine | 46 | 33 (72%) |
| Deraya University – Egypt | 34 | 15 (44%) |
| INRAP-Chimique – Tunisia | 20 | 4 (20%) |
| Julius-Maximilians-Universitat Wurzburg – Germany | 28 | 16 (57%) |
| Lebanese International University – Lebanon | 90 | 11 (12%) |
| National University College of Technology – Jordan | 7 | 0 (0%) |
| Universidade de Tras-os-Montes e Alto Douro – Portugal | 33 | 5 (15%) |
| Universitat de Girona – Spain | 17 | 9 (53%) |
| Universite Abdelmalek Essaadi – Morocco | 138 | 11 (8%) |
| Université de Bordeaux – France | 55 | 50 (91%) |
| Université Setif 2 – Algeria | 53 | 6 (11%) |
| University of Limerick – Ireland | 86 | 45 (52%) |
| University of Padova – Italy | 84 | 49 (58%) |
| Utrecht University of Applied Science – Netherlands | 30 | 18 (60%) |
| Not affiliated to any institution | 23 | 3 (13%) |
| All participants | 806 | 318 (39%) |
“It is remarkable to note that in 2024 our Palestinian partners Bethlehem University and An-Najah University score 2nd and 3rd respectively as partners with the highest the completion rates.”
In the table above, we observe variations in completion rates between universities. Based on last year’s experience, and previous virtual exchanges we organised, we know that retention and completion of our programme is positively impacted by the way universities integrate the course into their curricula.
Elements that boost engagement are:
- Number of credits offered;
- Whether the host-course for the virtual exchange is a mandatory / elective course (as opposed to the virtual exchange being a stand-alone course);
- Amount of regular check-ins by local teachers with their students about their experience in the virtual exchange;
- English proficiency of students who are offered the opportunity to participate in the virtual exchange.
2024 will be remembered as the year in which ethnic cleansing in Gaza took place. Our partner the Islamic University of Gaza was therefore not able to participate in the course. However, it is remarkable to note that in 2024 our Palestinian partners Bethlehem University and An-Najah University score 2nd and 3rd respectively as partners with the highest the completion rates of their students. This shows that our virtual exchange programmes are able to engage students who face barriers to international travel and/or exposure, or who are located in (protracted) conflict areas.
See our course syllabus for more details on points matrix and corresponding assignments. For more details of the demographic of participants and their participation in the two iterations, see our Engagement reports for Climate Justice Spring and Fall 2024. For information about participation in the upcoming cycle, view the course page for Spring 2025.
Climate Action Projects
“In 2024, participants in the Climate Justice virtual exchange developed 109 Climate Action Projects.”
Unique of this Climate Justice virtual exchange is the Climate Action Project (CAP). A CAP is a project aimed at combating climate change which is designed and developed by a multicultural team of students, who then implement the project simultaneously in their local communities and assess its impact. The assignment is completed over the course of seven weeks, and students are supported in their endeavours by facilitators, course staff, and helpful resources and toolkits.
When generating CAP ideas, students are given three potential project ‘tracks’ to help them focus their efforts. These tracks are:
- Social Action – projects that affect people’s behaviour to be more sustainable, and use ‘people power’ to enact change for the good of the community and the climate. They are concerned with educating, influencing, promoting understanding, motivating, or building relationships.
- Political Action – projects that influence people in power to take action for the planet. They are concerned with leveraging institutions and authorities to make concrete action in terms of political leadership, laws, policies, or institutional norms.
- Environmental Action – projects that directly improve the local environment. They are concerned with making observable differences in community or natural spaces, and encouraging people in the community to get involved in caring for nature.
Students refine their ideas and form teams with others who share the same interests. Each team submits a detailed project plan, and receives constructive feedback from course staff. They continuously communicate and meet throughout the project to collaborate on shared tasks and support each other in individual implementation. At the end of the course, they deliver a presentation about their CAP that includes what they achieved and evidence of impact.
In 2024, participants in the Climate Justice virtual exchange developed 109 Climate Action Projects. The projects vary in type, geographic spread and impact. We have highlighted some of the projects that have led to impressive outputs from students teams in a different blogpost.
Impact
“Participants made significant strides in embodying environmental values and taking action based on what they learned during the course.”
The Climate Justice virtual exchange aims to facilitate intercultural dialogue on issues surrounding Climate change and finding just and inclusive ways to respond to the climate crisis. This raises the question, did participants develop competences that foster environmentally responsible behaviours and attitudes? To answer this, we have evaluated the impact of the Climate Justice virtual exchange on changes in participants’ learning and engagement over the course of the programme on four key sustainability scales: Embody, Embrace, Envision, and Acting. These scales have been developed based on the Greencomp: European sustainability competence framework. We did not have room to use the full framework, as it would pose too much of a burden on the participants, and so the scales are adapted from this framework. The specific questions asked to participants to measure the four sustainability scales are listed in the Evaluation Guide of the CliVEx project.
The four scales have the following definitions:
The competence area ‘Embodying sustainability values’ encourages learners to reflect on and challenge their own personal values and world-views in terms of sustainability. This area advocates equity and justice for current and future generations, while supporting the view that humans are a part of nature.
The competence area ‘Embracing complexity in sustainability’ is about:
- empowering learners with systemic and critical thinking, and encouraging them to reflect on how to better assess information and challenge unsustainability;
- scanning systems by identifying interconnections and feedback;
- framing challenges as sustainability problems, which helps us learn about the scale of a situation while identifying everyone involved.
The competence area ‘Envisioning sustainability futures’ enables learners to visualise alternative future scenarios and identify actions to achieve a sustainable future. It is essential that learners acquire the competence of ‘adaptability’ while coping with uncertainty about the futures and trade-offs in sustainability. Applying creative and transdisciplinary approaches to our way of thinking can foster a circular society and encourage learners to use their imagination when thinking about the future.
‘Acting for sustainability’ encourages learners to take action at individual and collective level to shape sustainable futures, to the extent possible. It also invites learners to demand action from those responsible to make change happen.
“We have evaluated each iteration separately, but the results of both programmes are very much alligned, suggesting a consistent effect of our programme on the participants.”
For both programmes we observe significant positive differences on three of the four scales: Embody, Embrace and Acting. Both Embody and Acting show moderate large effect sizes (d = 0.74 and d= 0.69 for Spring and d = 0.64 and d = 0.69 for Fall respectively) while for Embrace we see a smaller moderate effect size (d = 0.43 for Spring and d = 0.33 for Fall). No significant effect as found for Envision.
The differences observed in the Embody and Acting scales suggest that participants made significant strides in embodying environmental values and taking action based on what they learned during the course. The difference in the Embrace scale suggest that participants improves their systemic and critical thinking towards issues surrounding climate change, better enabling them to identify its interconnectedness. These results highlight the programme’s positive impact on fostering environmentally responsible behaviours and attitudes among participants.
We have evaluated each iteration separately, but the results of both programmes are very much alligned, suggesting a consistent effect of our programme on the participants. For more details about the evaluation we conducted, and the process of data gathering and analysis, please review the Impact Reports of the Spring and Fall iterations.
Satisfaction
“Satisfaction of various dimensions of the programme is very high.”
In addition to the impact of our programme on participants, we evaluated participant satisfaction levels with several aspects of the programme. This shows us that satisfaction of various dimensions of the programme is very high. We asked participants to rate their satisfaction on a 5 point Likert scale from “Very Dissatisfied” to “Very Satisfied”. Below is a table showing the percentages of participants indicating “Satisfied” or “Very Satisfied” on the different dimensions of the programme.
| Satisfaction with: | % “Satisfied” or “Very satisfied” Spring 2024 | % “Satisfied” or “Very satisfied” Fall 2024 |
| Overall Course | 95% | 97% |
| Facilitators | 97% | 97% |
| Course structure | 91% | 89% |
| Course Materials | 93% | 90% |
| Learning platform (Brightspace) | 97% | 89% |
The above satisfaction levels are based on the post-programme evaluation survey. During the programme’s implementation, students were offered the chance to evaluate their experience directly after each online dialogue session in so-called “30-second feedback forms”. These results largely confirm the satisfaction levels shown in the post-programme survey, as can be seen in the table below.
| Satisfaction with: | % “Satisfied” or “Very satisfied” Spring 2024 | % “Satisfied” or “Very satisfied” Fall 2024 |
| Your facilitators | 95% | 94% |
| The discussions | 89% | 85% |
| The materials of this week | 91% | 87% |
| The quality of the session | 92% | 89% |
For more detailed information about the evaluation on satisfaction and methods of data collection, we refer to the Impact reports of both programmes linked above.
Participant testimonials
“This experience has been very enriching and has given me a lot as a person. I’ve gained self-confidence and I’ve grown as a person. I was already very aware of current climate issues, but hearing the concrete testimonies of other students like me, but whose situations are so different, really opened my eyes and gave me the desire to take more action and get more involved in the fight against climate change.”
Participant, 21, France
“It made me more aware of the interconnectedness of environmental issues and human rights, encouraging me to be more proactive in my actions towards climate justice. Additionally, I noticed an improvement in my English skills and my ability to interact with people from different cultures.”
Participant, 22, Palestine
“I noticed I took a lot more initiative than I would normally do in my own classes. This has impacted me to make more decisions and be more straightforward. I also became more open-minded towards certain topics and opinions.”
Participant, 22, The Netherlands
