ZEW Develops Simulation Game “Climate Cabinet” for Young People

For two years, ZEW Mannheim and the foundation “Klimastiftung für Bürger” have been developing a way to enter into dialogue with young people: the simulation game “Climate Cabinet”. The game vividly simulates how Germany can become climate-neutral, but also what challenges need to be overcome in the process. The simulation game has now been completed and can be booked daily at the Klima Arena in Sinsheim.

Wednesday afternoon in Sinsheim. Around twenty students from a business high school split up into several groups: Who wants to go to the Ministry for the Environment and who wants to go to the Chancellery? Who is responsible for transport, the economy or the Ministry of the Interior? After the students have read through the information material, the simulation game can begin, in which everyone takes on an active role in the Climate Cabinet. Like the real Climate Cabinet, the simulation game starts with the challenge of reducing Germany’s CO₂ emissions. The contractual obligations of the Paris Agreement and the European partners must be respected. In this way, the school students can explore the work of the climate cabinet and the complex negotiation processes in a playful manner.

“Not least in response to the Fridays for Future movement, we wanted to give young people and young adults the opportunity to understand climate policy decisions for themselves. Thus, the simulation game was developed in cooperation with partners who have many years of experience in the field of sustainability didactics,” explains Dr. Marc Frick, project manager in ZEW’s “Environmental and Resource Economics, Environmental Management” Research Department. The simulation game is based on scientific principles and has emerged from several projects funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research.