Considering the ever-increasing impacts of climate change, the responsibility to take leadership lies with many actors; one of them being universities. The course in “Climate Change Leadership – Power, Politics and Culture” at CEMUS/Uppsala University explores the issue from a participatory perspective where students play a significant role in exploring what climate change leadership means throughout one semester. By using an educational design research approach this paper contributes to the further development of the course by giving a definition for climate change leadership as a theoretical outcome, and suggesting improvements for the course development as a practical outcome. To do so a theoretical analysis of leadership and change theories has been undertaken, as well as an analysis of data collected by current and former students, and course coordinators that have worked with the course before. The given definition and suggestions for the course will be subject to critical scrutiny in the upcoming spring semester and are subject to change depending on their efficacy in contributing to leadership capabilities in students.