Document Type

Article

Publication Date

Fall 9-25-2025

Abstract

The transformative potential to incorporate students’ unions as an institutional gateway for the implementation of Action for Climate Empowerment (ACE) in higher education systems is discussed in this paper. Working on the outlines of the Glasgow Work Programme and prominent ACE frameworks as a basis of support, it asserts that student governments are structurally aligned with ACE goals, providing them procedural legitimacy, direct access to young people, and the capacity to put all six ACE pillars into practice: education, training, public awareness, public participation, access to information, and international cooperation. The study applies case studies from the University of Florida, American University, and Harvard where student-led climate legislation showed peer-driven climate literacy, governance capability, and policy leverage. While, examining South African universities' data demonstrated that students’ unions can influence sustainability reforms through institutional channels. Students' unions have a deeply rooted penetration to huge masses of young people yet are scarcely integrated into national ACE plans. With their financing, institutional partnerships, and their role in reporting ACE, the paper suggests that they should be made explicitly visible in policy designs. Therefore, the aim of this work is to propose a strategy for incorporating student governance in ACE policy designs.

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