Explained: Climate Tables

In this article you read more about the game Climate Tables.

If you don't know what the game is about, please first read further here.

In Climate Tables you determine the Dutch climate policy. This is a complex subject and not easy to design into a game. There must be a balance between playability and real-life dilemmas.

In this article you will read more about the ideas behind the game and which design choices were made. The following topics will be covered:

The relationship between the National Climate Agreement and Climate Tables

The dilemmas and choices made in the design process

The results of groups that played the game before

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National Climate Agreement and Climate Tables

The design of the National Climate Agreement (2019) has guided the creation of the game. The focus on sectors in the agreement has been adopted. The chosen themes in the game, called "cross-sector coherence" in the accord, were selected as they seemed most interesting for the game.

The choices in the game are a simplification of the decisions from the National Climate Agreement. This complex document of 239 pages was translated into a game with a playing time of a few hours. The decided commitments in the National Climate Agreement don't have to be taken into account by the players, but the dilemmas involved are part of the game

Next to the inspiration it got from the National Climate Agreement, Climate Tables was also created based on three principles:

Climate change is proven beyond doubt and therefore a fundamental topic that deserves our attention.

Climate change deserves our attention because it's having and will have a significant impact on the world in the future. With Climate Tables we hope to get more people interested in this topic, specifically the group that wants to know more about the Dutch context.

Climate policy is not simple but complex. A systemic approach is needed for the best result.

Each player has an important role in the game. In fact, everyone is essential. As each person makes the right choices from their own perspective, the system can work well. However, it is important to keep working together and to take unexpected events into account.

It's important to make your own choices and experience the pros and cons of doing so.

With a game you create a safe environment to experiment and try out choices. The important thing is that these choices have consequences: you want to see the effects of your decisions and thus learn from your choices. Also, in a game you can practice working together and test which strategies lead to the best results.

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Each player has an important role in the game. In fact, everyone is essential.

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Dilemmas and choices

It's impossible to create a game like Climate Tables without trade-offs. It has to be both realistic and playable, challenging but also fun. Below is an overview showing some of the dilemmas and the choices made in the game design.

Dilemma

Choice

How do you determine what is more important: cost, public support or emissions?

You're not going to determine this as the creator; you leave this to the players. The game is as neutral as possible in weighing these issues, but tries to present the dilemmas to the player as clearly as possible.

Climate policy is made by a lot of people. You cannot represent every role in this process in a game. But with few players, the game is too simple and the dilemmas do not emerge properly.

The game is made to be played with twenty people. With fewer players, for a standard board game there between three and five is normal, you have to remove many elements and the game becomes too unrealistic.

You practically won't find more than twenty players easily, which would make it less playable. Because each player has a specific task, not everyone has to understand all the rules in the game either.

Climate change is a serious topic. This doesn't automatically lend itself well to a game, where having fun is an important element. But you also don't want a fun game to cause people to not take an important topic like climate change seriously.

You try to find a good mix between fun and seriousness. Simple elements make the game accessible and fun, for example with colorful boards and recognizable board game components such as chips, cubes and pawns. The choices you have to make at the tables give you discussions similar to those of policy makers. With an introduction before and an evaluation after the game, try to bring the two worlds together.

Not everyone is a climate expert. In addition, some participants are familiar with the content. How do you make sure the game is fun for both?

You should be able to play the game without any prior knowledge. With good explanations and the ability to ask questions as you play, you will help players through the game. As you play multiple rounds, you also get to know the dynamics better and better.

It's (intentionally) not a simple game, as that would not be realistic. It also remains challenging for experts. Also, there is no fixed, winning strategy. The art is to work well together and get everyone to go along with the desired result.

Which kind of data do you use? What do you consider reliable and how do you use this data well in a game?

All data come mainly from reliable sources such as PBL and CBS. This mainly involves emission data available for the various sectors.

In a standard board game calculations are not possible. For this game a model has been made that calculates the choices made by the players. After each round, the results are shared with everyone. This way you can come up with a new strategy in the next round.

In the National Climate Agreement or Heard Somewhere Else?

The National Climate Agreement contains more than 600 commitments. These commitments are very different, both in terms of subject matter and how concrete they are.

In the quiz, you will come across several climate commitments. However, not all of them come from the National Climate Agreement. Do you know which ones are in the agreement?

[ld_quiz quiz_id="13514"]

Results

Climate Tables revolves around three variables: emissions, costs and public support. These are addressed in the following way:

emissions

The Sector Tables determine how many emissions there are. By focusing on cleaner production methods or investing in innovation, you can reduce emissions.

profit

If you don't spend money on a Sector Table, you keep this as profit. The profit can become negative due to penalties, players not meeting certain preconditions or having bad luck.

public support

Every Theme Table is about public support. This is defined differently at each table, namely: sufficient workforce at Labor, a fair distribution of charging infrastructure, enough nature and successful pilots at Space, a good electricity supply at System and limited costs for climate policy at Financing.

There are always three winners at the end of the game:

The best Sector Table, namely the table with the best balance between making profits and reducing emissions.

The best Theme Table, namely the table with the highest level of public support.

The player who sits at both the winning Sector and Theme table.

You also get an overall score as a group. The table below shows these scores from groups that have played Climate Tables before. Good to know is that this relates to total emission reduction, total profit and average public support at the end of the game. Each group plays over a 12-year period.

Group

Emissions

(reduction compared to base year)

Profit

(billions)

Public support

(score between 0 – 10)

Talent voor Transitie

-30%

-14,0

7,5

(high)

Community of Energy Top Talents

-45%

-13,4

6,7

(average)

Topsector Energie

-44%

-33,8

6,7

(average)

Magnus Red

-32%

9,5

7,2

(average)

Hey you.... Do you want to know at which tables you have the biggest chance of winning?

Currently, the most frequent winners are at the Food Sector Table and the Financing Theme Table. But have no fear, you have every chance of winning at the other tables as well.

Ready for a deep dive?

You now know how the National Climate Agreement led to the creation of Climate Tables. The game tries to translate the essence of the agreement into an environment where everyone can make their own climate choices.

There is much more to learn about climate policy, perhaps you are now curious about it. After the publication of the National Climate Agreement, there have been a lot of new developments that have further shaped Dutch climate policy.

Curious about which ones these are? Learn more about the Dutch climate plans in the deep dive on Climate Policy.

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