Eco-Anxiety: An Untapped Potential for Shaping the Leaders of Tomorrow
2026 Geneva Forum - Speaker Short Feature
A contribution by Jérémy Labouré, published ahead of his intervention in the Education and Project-Based Learning session of the 2026 Geneva Forum.
Mots clefs :
Eco-anxiety · Eco-lucidity · Project-Based Learning · Youth Empowerment · Environmental Education
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Authorship:
– Jérémy Labouré, EARTH CARE MOVEMENT
How can we transform a generation that is increasingly aware of global challenges into a generation capable of leading positive change?
Eco-anxiety is often presented through the lens of fear, paralysis and uncertainty. But behind this anxiety lies something we should not overlook: awareness.
Young people today are growing up with an acute understanding of the environmental, social and political challenges that surround them. They see a world in transition and, naturally, may feel overwhelmed by the scale of what needs to be done. Where should I even begin when there is so much to change?
This is where we believe education has a fundamental role to play.
At our NGO Earth Care Movement, we prefer to speak of eco-lucidity: the ability to recognise the reality of ecological change and its consequences, without allowing that awareness to become paralysis. Our role is to help young people transform this lucidity into agency.
Our first observations through our research-action approach confirm that many young people already have a strong awareness of environmental challenges. What is often missing is not knowledge, but a first step and a direction: the confidence to take action and the ability to imagine a future worth building.
This is where Project-Based Learning becomes particularly powerful. By moving from abstract global challenges to concrete projects, young people can experiment, make choices, collaborate, fail, learn and ultimately discover that they can have an impact. Learning becomes not only a way to understand the world, but a way to find one’s place within it.
A generation that understands the challenges of its time is not necessarily a generation in crisis. It can become a generation of visionaries.
The question is therefore not simply how to reduce eco-anxiety. It is how we can create the educational conditions that allow young people to transform concern into curiosity, lucidity into action, and uncert
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