The Youth and the Ecological Transition. The emblematic educational value from UCSC CLIC-PLAN and PMI RISK ADAPT research projects

The civil societies’ cultural heritage and the future of Education for the younger generations pass through the orientation to the good life, with and for the other in fair institutions, through a sustainable development that calls into question awareness for the gravity of the state of the environment. On March 15, 2019, over one million students deserted the classrooms to take to the streets in an unprecedented all-day strike, taking part in over two thousand protests in 128 countries against inertia in the face of climate change, clamoring for a planetary transformation leading to a post-carbon era. Both the systemic and the global nature of environmental challenges imply that, to achieve long-term sustainability objectives, profound structural changes to social systems are required. Those related to food, energy, housing and mobility are of particular importance. Youth and ecological transition, the thematic diptych at the center of the essay, represents today an emblematic educational field. Achieving such a transition will require much more than an increase in efficiency in the use of raw materials. The interdisciplinary researches CLIC-PLAN and PMI RISK ADAPT, supported by the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart and of strategic interest for the university, attest to the relevance of a wide and motivated participation in defining new ways to face the ecological transition, for and with the younger generations.