What is it about?
This chapter builds on empirical insights emanating from a forthcoming edited volume on Higher Education Policy for Tackling Climate Change (Kekale & Pinheiro, 2025). Twenty researchers from 10 countries from South America, Asia, and Europe were asked to study national policies and institutional responses in climate change mitigation. The overall picture is that, the great majority of national policy initiatives are disjoint and highly symbolic, providing ʻhigher educationʼ (HEIs) institutions much room for discretion, in those cases where they have both the strategic willingness and resources to do so. However, the HEI strategies often tend to be political and symbolic. The chapter discusses the topic from the point of view of strategic leadership, arguing for the need to develop sustainable paths for collaboration among key stakeholders. We provide some ways to improve institutional strategic leadership. We also note that HEIs play an important, albeit supportive role, in Climate Change mitigation, with their primary contribution being associated with their traditional roles of creation and transmission of new and old knowledge as well as in educating future citizens about the challenges and realities underpinning a zero-carbon world.
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Why is it important?
Climate change is one of the grandest of our global challenges. HEIs world over are trying to contribute to mitigation of CC as their strategic target.
Perspectives
The background in our international analysis of the topic adds depth and helps to circumvent the relatively common political, linguistic and symbolic approaches.
Jouni Kekäle
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Strategic Institutional Leadership for Tackling Climate Change, May 2025, De Gruyter,
DOI: 10.1163/9789004740990_002.
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