CarbonGame – worldwide

CarbonGame trains participants to manage greenhouse gas emissions in a fun, interactive and time-effective format. By immersing participants in an educational experience, this high-impact training initiative engages and enlightens government, private-sector, and non-governmental actors in a rapid learning environment. Players learn about the risks and opportunities of a low-carbon economy, preparing them to develop policies and activities in response.

Fast facts

Delivered to more than 4,000 participants in 16 countries, including executives from some of the world’s largest companies;
More than 10 million tonnes of potential verifiable carbon offset emissions and more than 5 million tonnes of potential greenhouse gas emission reductions to date;
Winner of the 2012 Australian Business Higher Education Roundtable Award

The problem

Understanding climate policy and developing carbon mitigation projects is often complex, necessitating a great deal of time and money to develop the required knowledge and skills. The traditional mode of “stand and deliver” teaching has so far failed to effectively engage most decision-makers, in part because of its tedious and time-consuming nature. This could be one reason why global carbon mitigation efforts have at times stagnated.

The solution

CarbonGame uses workshop-based, online simulation games to engage and enlighten businesspeople and policy-makers on how to mitigate climate change. Delivered via electronic tablets and the Internet, participants learn through a mix of professionally produced video and texts.

During CarbonGame workshops, participants assume control of a hypothetical firm from the fictitious country called Tasland. Utilising a series of narratives and a set of entertaining and helpful tools, they develop a greenhouse gas emissions inventory; conduct a financial appraisal of available emissions abatement opportunities; and trade emissions over three simulated years of the Tasland emissions trading scheme.

Within about three hours, players are able to grasp how emissions trading schemes work, how the design of those schemes affects the carbon market, and how carbon offsetting can play a major role in climate change mitigation.

Helping the planet

CarbonGame empowers participants to investigate innovative climate financing in order to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, and reduce environmental impacts such as deforestation. When implemented as business practices and governmental policies, this translates into actual greenhouse gas emission reductions and forest conservation.

Helping people

Better climate change policy results in safer and more resilient communities. Other indirect social benefits include empowering people with knowledge and skills, and improving the financial situation of often-poor small-holder farmers.

Scaling up

The CarbonGame can be customized to any culture, language, and climate policy circumstance. Participants frequently describe the CarbonGame as a “light-bulb moment,” reflecting the fact that it goes beyond being a mere training exercise, to facilitating transformational change. In the long-term, CarbonGame is planned for expansion through mass-online gaming technologies to become a full online simulation readily accessible to the general public.