• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Ci Logo

Climate Interactive

  • About
    • About
    • Who We Are
    • Partners & Funders
    • Work With Us
    • Donate
  • Our Work
    • Simulators & Science
      • En-ROADS
      • C-ROADS
      • Research & Insights
    • Experiences
      • En-ROADS Climate Workshop
      • Climate Action Simulation Game
      • World Climate Simulation Game
      • En-ROADS Guided Assignment
    • En-ROADS Ambassador Program
      • About the Program
      • Become an Ambassador
      • Meet our Ambassadors
    • Other Tools & Programs
      • The Climate Leader
      • Multisolving
      • Food Systems
      • Systems Thinking
  • Get Involved
    • Trainings
      • En-ROADS Training
      • En-ROADS Ambassador Program
      • The Climate Leader
    • Join an Event
      • Webinar & Event Schedule
      • Contact an Ambassador
      • Run an Event Yourself
  • Multimedia
    • Blog
    • Videos
    • Press
  • Support
    • Frequently Asked Questions
    • Community Forums
    • Contact Us
  • About Us
  • Staff
  • Partners & Funders
  • Work With Us
  • Donate
  • Simulators & Science
    • En-ROADS
    • C-ROADS
    • Research & Insights
  • Experiences
    • En-ROADS Climate Workshop
    • Climate Action Simulation game
    • World Climate Simulation game
    • En-ROADS Guided Assignment
    • Join an Event
  • Ambassador Program
    • About the Program
    • Become an Ambassador
    • Meet our Ambassadors
  • Other Programs
    • Multisolving
    • Systems Thinking
    • Climate Analysis
    • Food Systems
  • Blog
  • Videos
  • Press
  • Trainings
    • En-ROADS Training
    • En-ROADS Ambassador Program
    • The Climate Leader
  • Events
    • Event & Webinar Schedule
    • Contact an Ambassador
    • Run an Event Yourself
    • Register Your Event
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Community Forums
  • Contact Us

Role-Playing a Path to Climate Stabilization

February 9, 2009 By Andrew Jones

something-bigger-than-ourselves001It was a big week for the Copenhagen Climate Exercise (now World Climate), the role-playing mock-UN policy exercise created here at Sustainability Institute and by John Sterman at MIT where people play the parts of UN diplomats from regions of the world and negotiate a global agreement to address climate change, testing their results in our C-ROADS simulator.

Peter Senge of MIT and the Society for Organizational Learning led one event in Boston for corporate sustainability leaders. An SI team led one with partners in Atlanta (see the poem and pictures above by Doc Klein of Uncharted Territories). And I ran three events for business school students at Duke University.

Time and time again, no matter who is playing, we see similar dynamics:

– Delegates from Africa and island nations (initially seated on the floor)  lobby, cajole, and engage the others

– Delegates from the developed world stay put and wait for others to push them to act (in Atlanta, a large ring formed around the snack-laden table)

– Players are struck by the “bathtub dynamics”, how much we must reduce emissions in order to stabilize atmospheric CO2

– Most all players empathize with the challenge facing all parties — how stuck everyone can feel whether they are sitting in the US, Brazil, China, or Zambia — and are surprised by the proposals out there that could achieve good results.

– People understand deeply that we are truly facing a global challenge and that here in the developed world we get to create the conditions within which growing economies such as China and India can participate fully  (more on this in Pew’s new report).

Primary Sidebar

Blog

Categories

  • Analysis
  • Blog
  • Business Focus
  • C-ROADS
  • En-ROADS
  • Equity
  • Examples of Multisolving
  • Featured
  • Food Systems
  • Event Type
  • Multisolving
  • Multisolving in Action
  • Multisolving Leaders
  • The Climate Action Simulation game
  • The En-ROADS Guided Assignment
  • Asia & Middle East
  • Africa
  • Uncategorized
  • World Climate Simulation

Footer

  • Explore
    • Home
    • Updates
    • Our Work
  • Connect
    • Support
    • Contact
    • FAQ
  • Get Involved
    • Training Program
    • Join an Event
    • Donate
Social Media
FacebookLinkedInTwitterYouTube

    Get Updates

    I accept having my information collected.* Privacy Policy.

    ⟶

    • Languages
    • Español
    • Português
    • Français
    • Deutsch
    Climate Interactive
    • © 2022 Climate Interactive
    • Privacy Policy