ASPEA at the 7th International Congress on Risks
CREEC Project — Environmental Education and Community Resilience in the Face of Climate Risks
Coimbra, Faculty of Arts, University of Coimbra · 26–29 May 2026
The Portuguese Association for Environmental Education (ASPEA) attended the 7th International Congress on Risks, which took place from 26 to 29 May 2026 at the Faculty of Arts, University of Coimbra, under the theme “Natural Resources, Energy and Society: global risks and paths to sustainability”. The association’s participation took the form of an oral presentation by ASPEA’s president, Joaquim Ramos Pinto, dedicated to the CREEC project, as part of the G3 panel — Research Group on Education for Risks (GIER).
Climate change is manifesting itself with increasing frequency and visibility — through floods, fires, heatwaves, episodes of intense cold and prolonged droughts — with impacts that go beyond the environmental sphere and affect security, the economy, food sovereignty, health and the well-being of populations. According to the European Environment Agency, these phenomena have already caused economic losses of over €400 billion in the European Union since 1980. It is against this backdrop that schools play a crucial role: over the last decade, extreme weather events have increased by around 40% in Europe, one in three European schools lacks an emergency plan for such events, and 72% of teachers report a lack of training in climate risk literacy.
It is this gap that CREEC (Community Responses to Extreme Environmental Events and Climate Change) seeks to address. It is a transnational partnership co-funded by the Erasmus+ programme (KA220‑SCH, 2025–2027), bringing together institutions from Portugal, Spain and Greece — two non-governmental organisations, a university, a social enterprise and three schools. The project’s main objective is to empower schools, teachers and pupils, equipping them with the knowledge and tools to cope with extreme weather events and integrate adaptation strategies into everyday school life, in line with the EU’s New Strategy on Adaptation to Climate Change, which emphasises the essential role of education in building resilient communities.
CREEC’s approach is simultaneously participatory, digital and transnational, and unfolds in four interconnected stages. It begins with an assessment, involving questionnaires for the school community to identify vulnerabilities and map local climate risks. This is followed by training, based on digital teaching materials and online and face-to-face activities for teachers and pupils. In a third phase, working groups are set up in each school, responsible for developing emergency plans adapted to the local context and for testing them through drills. Finally, international exchanges, an Art and Environment festival and a continuous monitoring system give substance to the dimension of cooperation and sharing among the partners.
Key expected outcomes include the implementation and real-world testing of climate emergency plans in partner schools, the production of educational resources and awareness-raising campaigns led by the students themselves, and the creation of a transnational network of schools documenting best practices and publications aimed at decision-makers. It is expected that more than 300 direct beneficiaries — teachers and students — will enhance their climate risk literacy, contributing to a lasting culture of prevention and safety that extends from the classroom to public policy.
As Joaquim Ramos Pinto emphasised, risk education is not an option, but an urgent necessity. CREEC demonstrates that schools can be true agents of change, shaping generations that are more resilient and better prepared for emerging climate challenges.