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Purpose: To combat climate change and safeguard a liveable future, humanity needs fundamental and rapid social change. The purpose of this paper is to show, why and how climate communication can play an important role to nurture the public engagement needed for this change, and to explore, what higher education for sustainability can learn from climate communication. Design/methodology/approach: The scientific evidence base on climate communication for effective public engagement is summarised into 10 key principles, including "basing communication on people's values", "conscious use of framing" and "turning concern into action". Based on the author's perspective and experience in the university context, implications are explored for sustainability in higher education. Findings: The study provides suggestions for teaching (e.g. complement information with consistent behaviour by the lecturer, integrate local stories and provide students with basic skills to communicate climate effectively), for research (e.g. make teaching for effective engagement the subject of applied research), for universities' third mission to contribute to sustainable development in the society (e.g. provide climate communication trainings to empower local stakeholders) and greening the campus (develop a proper engagement infrastructure, e.g. by a university storytelling exchange on climate action). Originality/value: The study provides an up-to-date overview of climate communication research, which is in itself original. This evidence base holds interesting learnings for institutions of higher education, and the link between climate communication and universities has so far not been explored comprehensively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to report on a case study concerning the development of sustainable energy partnerships involving engineering faculty and undergraduate students at the University of Girona, Catalonia, Spain. Design/methodology/approach: Faculty were motivated to seek partnerships with public and private entities in the local area for the purposes of realising mutually beneficial outcomes. The educational programmes of future engineers, when sustainability is considered, are analysed. Education for sustainable development has to include multidisciplinary active learning as a desirable competence. Active learning can be obtained when problems are based on real life because they are most motivating for students. Constructive alignment component is obtained because learning objectives are linked with learning activities related to the needs of public and private entities. Findings: Through the provision of technical expertise, the adoption and success of renewable energy projects was facilitated on the one hand, while final year undergraduate students benefited in terms of hands-on experience in helping to bring these projects to life, drawing on the knowledge and skills they had acquired throughout their degree programmes. These works are addressed to students by faculty members with the aim of developing and promoting renewable energies. Outcomes from partnerships surpassed expectations; not only were different benefits realised as were initially hoped for, but this success led to partnerships being sustained over time. Originality/value: Fossil fuel-based energy systems are associated with a myriad of negative environmental and social externalities. It is difficult to overstate the importance of transitioning towards alternative low carbon energy sources for climate change mitigation which are less centralised compared to the status-quo for energy security and energy independence. By actively facilitating the development of decentralised renewable energy sources in Catalonia, the projects reported herein are of significant value in social environmental and educational terms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]