Climate change is no longer a distant scientific concept. It is already influencing cities, agriculture, water resources, energy systems, public health, infrastructure, and the future of Ukraine’s recovery and development. For this reason, climate education must go beyond the traditional transfer of scientific knowledge. It must help different professional communities understand climate risks, use climate information, and apply it in real decisions.

At the heart of the project “Multilevel Local, Nation- and Regionwide Education and Training in Climate Services, Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation – ClimEd” is a clear educational ambition: to build the foundation for the development of a climate service system in Ukraine, while bridging the gap between climate experts and specialists from climate-dependent economic sectors. The project does not treat climate knowledge as something limited to scientists. Instead, it transforms climate science into structured educational programmes that help climate information become usable for decision-making in sectors where climate risks are already becoming critical.

Within this framework, a comprehensive portfolio of courses and professional development programmes was developed in Ukrainian. In addition, selected sectoral courses were developed in English to support broader international use, cooperation, and knowledge exchange. Together, these courses contribute to the development of climate services, climate change adaptation and mitigation, climate policy, climate risk assessment, and sector-specific climate resilience in Ukraine.

The ClimEd course portfolio covers three main educational levels: PhD training, Master’s programmes, and professional development programmes. This structure makes it possible to work with different target groups, including doctoral students, Master’s students, university teachers, climate service specialists, public authorities, sectoral experts, and practitioners working in climate-sensitive areas.

At the PhD level, the Climate Service programme focuses on advanced scientific and applied competences. It includes courses on climate datasets, deriving climate products, forecasting models, climate policy in Ukraine, management of climate services, and communication skills for climate service. A separate block is devoted to the UN Sustainable Development Goals and Goal 13, including both a general course and sectoral versions for construction, city management, water management, agriculture, energy, and health care.

This structure is important because a modern climate service specialist needs more than technical knowledge. Such a specialist must be able to work with climate data, transform it into useful climate products, understand the needs of policy and practice, communicate uncertainty, and support evidence-based decision-making. In practice, ClimEd prepares professionals who can act as a bridge between climate science and the real needs of society.

At the Master’s level, the project developed courses in two major directions: Climate Service and Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation. These programmes include the fundamentals of global climate dynamics and modelling, climate data and information for climate services, climate products, climate risk assessment, climate policy, communication, climate law, climate projections, vulnerability assessment, mitigation and adaptation strategies, and the economics of climate change.

A particularly valuable feature of the ClimEd educational package is its sectoral orientation. Students do not study climate change only as a general environmental issue. They also examine how climate risks appear in specific sectors: through heat stress in cities, water scarcity, damage to infrastructure, risks to agricultural production, energy system vulnerability, and health impacts. This is essential because climate-dependent sectors need climate information that is practical, understandable, and directly connected with their professional decisions.

In addition to degree programmes, ClimEd developed a broad set of professional development programmes. These are especially important for specialists who are already working in education, governance, planning, environmental management, or climate-sensitive economic sectors. For these audiences, climate education is not abstract knowledge; it is a tool for improving planning, reducing risks, and strengthening resilience.

The professional development programme “Climate Services” includes courses on climate data and products, climate risk assessment for different sectors, communication skills, and management of climate services in Ukraine. The professional development programme “Climate Change” includes courses on global climate dynamics and modelling, mitigation and adaptation plans, and the economics of climate change.

These programmes are designed to support practical capacity building. They help participants understand how climate information can be used in real institutional and sectoral contexts. This is especially relevant for Ukraine, where climate adaptation and resilience are increasingly connected with reconstruction, regional development, environmental recovery, and European integration.

One of the strongest elements of the ClimEd portfolio is the development of sectoral professional development programmes. These programmes focus on climate-smart agriculture, climate-smart health care, climate-smart construction and architecture, climate-smart city management, climate-smart energy, climate-smart water management, and climate-oriented policy and natural resources management.

Each sectoral programme follows a practical logic. It begins with an introduction to climate change, then moves to climate risk assessment in a specific sector, and finally introduces climate service products that can support decision-making. This structure helps participants move from general awareness to applied professional use of climate information.

For example, a specialist in water management needs to understand not only general climate trends, but also how changing precipitation, droughts, floods, and extreme events affect water resources. A city manager needs climate information for urban heat, drainage, green infrastructure, and emergency planning. A health care specialist needs to understand the links between heat waves, air quality, vulnerable groups, and public health preparedness. In this way, ClimEd directly connects climate expertise with the needs of climate-dependent sectors.

Another important result of the ClimEd educational work is the open online course “Climate Change: Causes, Impacts, Adaptation.” This course is designed for a broad audience and provides an accessible introduction to the functioning of the climate system, the causes and impacts of climate change, and basic approaches to adaptation. It is organised over three weeks and combines video lectures, reading materials, practical assignments, quizzes, and discussion activities. The course is suitable for students, early-career professionals, representatives of government, business and civil society, as well as anyone interested in climate change and sustainability. Upon successful completion, participants receive a digital certificate.

All courses developed within the ClimEd project are uploaded to the Moodle platform re.climed.network, which provides structured access to course materials, learning activities, assignments, tests, and other educational resources. More detailed information about each course is available on the project website climed.network, where the broader structure of the project, its educational outputs, partner institutions, and course-related materials are presented.

The ClimEd course portfolio is more than a collection of separate educational products. It forms an integrated educational system for strengthening climate knowledge and climate services in Ukraine. Its main value is that it connects scientific understanding with applied skills, higher education with professional development, and general climate knowledge with sector-specific decision-making.

This is particularly important in the current Ukrainian context. Climate change adaptation, mitigation, environmental recovery, and sustainable reconstruction cannot be treated as separate tasks. Ukraine needs specialists who can understand climate risks, work with climate data, communicate uncertainty, support public authorities and communities, and design scientifically grounded solutions that are useful in practice.

All courses within the ClimEd portfolio were developed in Ukrainian. In addition, selected courses were developed in English, including “UN Sustainable Development Goals and Goal 13” with sectoral applications and “Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies in Ukraine” with different sectoral applications. By combining a complete Ukrainian-language course portfolio, English-language sectoral materials, professional development opportunities, and an open online course, ClimEd makes climate education more accessible, practical, and relevant to the real challenges faced by Ukraine and the wider European region.

Ultimately, ClimEd contributes to the formation of a new generation of climate-literate professionals. These are specialists who can not only understand climate change, but also use climate information to support adaptation, mitigation, sustainable reconstruction, and the development of a functional climate service system in Ukraine.

Text by Inna Khomenko, Mechnikov’s Odessa National University, Ukraine