simulations – Climate Interactive

Global Effort to Spread Climate Negotiation Simulations Takes Off

As the U.N. climate negotiations steadily tick toward their deadline of releasing a new agreement in 2015, a global effort led by young people to have their voices heard and taken seriously in the negotiations is spreading worldwide. The initiative, COP in MyCity, is using Climate Interactive’s World Climate Exercise as the basis of their campaign to help young people understand the negotiations and set their priorities for the global outcome.

Already, they have held 46 events worldwide with over 1300 people participating in places ranging from Paris to Kathmandu to Accra. Climate Interactive first developed the World Climate Exercise in 2009. Since then, people have used the simulation in a wide range of settings, from Fortune 500 companies to Austrian middle schools. This is the first time, however, that we know of an effort to use World Climate with such a widespread global impact. Continue reading →

March 10, 2014March 12, 2014 by Ellie Johnston Categories: Policy exercises and serious gamesTags: climate negotiation simulation, CliMates, COP in MyCity, model UN, simulations, UNFCCC, World Climate, World Climate Exercise Leave a comment

4 Tools for Teaching Engaging Climate & Systems Thinking Classes

Climate Interactive has many tools that can be used in classrooms from middle school to graduate-level for interactive and engaging classes on topics like, climate change, energy policy, and systems thinking.

World Climate Exercise:

World Climate is a role-playing climate simulation that gives groups from 6-80 a chance to experience how to negotiate a global agreement to mitigate climate change. The group breaks into teams that represent different parts of the world and then form proposals to limit climate change to 2 degrees, which are then tested with either the C-ROADS or C-Learn simulations. This is a great way to have groups explore the implications of climate change and the level of response needed to address it. Materials to facilitate the World Climate Exercise are available in several languages here.

C-Learn:

C-Learn is a simulation that helps people to understand the long-term climate effects (CO₂ concentrations, global temperature, sea level rise) of various actions like, reducing fossil fuel emissions, reducing deforestation, and planting trees. It is specifically designed for climate communicators, educators, and leaders of the World Climate Exercise, who want to use a web-based simulation to improve understanding of large-scale actions to mitigate climate change. C-Learn can be found here.

Continue reading →

October 4, 2012October 9, 2012 by Ellie Johnston Categories: ResourcesTags: classroom, Climate, climate change curriculum, interactive learning, role-playing, simulations, systems thinking, teaching Leave a comment

C-ROADS provides “spirited moment” to Rio Climate Challenge prep

Alfredo Sirkis at RCC opening planning ceremony (credit: Tarsio Alves)

Travis Franck, Senior Scientist and Policy Analyst here at Climate Interactive, recently returned from Recife, Brazil, where he worked with Brazilian congressional representatives and international leaders in climate policy to shape what will be Brazil’s crowning climate change event around the Rio+20 Earth Summit this June. The Rio Climate Challenge aims to demonstrate that it is possible to have an international agreement that can keep CO2 concentrations under 450ppm. Climate Interactive has been showing to people (with our C-ROADS simulation) what global action would be required to put the world on a 2C-Pathway, and we are excited that others are committed to continuing to bring this message to political leaders.

The Rio Climate Challenge (RCC) is being convened by the Brazilian congress. It will be an additional event during the Rio+20 conference focused on a climate change, which is not included in the main UN meeting. Continue reading →

April 26, 2012April 26, 2012 by Ellie Johnston Categories: Policy exercises and serious gamesTags: Brazilian Congress, C-ROADS, climate change, RCC, Rio Climate Challenge, Rio+20, simulations, Travis Franck 2 Comments

Simulations essential for addressing climate change

MIT professor and Climate Interactive team member, John Sterman, succinctly explains in the video below that using simulation models can help policymakers address climate change. John explains, “If these models are going to be effective they not only have to be rigorously grounded in the science—as our models are—but they have to be transparent, accessible, run quickly, and give people that immediate feedback on any experiment they may want to run.” Find out more about the C-ROADS model John describes and the work we are doing at http://www.climateinteractive.org.

March 14, 2012 by Ellie Johnston Categories: Team and communityTags: C-ROADS, climate change, climate model, john sterman, MIT, simulations Leave a comment