Global warming games, also sometimes referred to as 'climate games' or 'climate change games,' belong to a genre of games that are usually classified as serious games. As serious games, global warming games try to simulate and explore real life issues to educate the player through an interactive experience. The issues particular to global warming games are usually energy efficiency and the implementation of green technology as ways to reduce CO2 emissions and thus counteract global warming. Global warming games include more traditional board games, computer and video games, as well as other varieties.
The Stabilization Wedge Game, or what is commonly referred to as simply the 'Wedge Game', is a serious game produced by Princeton University's Carbon Mitigation Initiative. The goal of the game creators, Stephen Pacala and Robert H. Socolow, is to demonstrate through this game that global warming is a problem which can be solved by implementing today's technologies to reduce CO2 emissions.[5] The object of the game is to keep the next fifty years of CO2 emissions flat, using seven wedges from a variety of different strategies which fit into the stabilization triangle.
The European Climate Forum and Munich Re have launched a climate game called Winds of Change, which is a board game for 2-4 persons. The game illustrates the climate challenge in a playful way and it can be used in team learning, schools, focus groups, etc. It includes several features, which are hotly debated in climate policy-making. These include among others: investments in R&D, technological learning and innovation, de-carbonizing the economy, ocean uptake of CO2, the 2 degrees limit, and insurance against extreme weather events.
