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Journey to Net Zero – an interactive game for young people to learn about climate change action

West Lancashire Borough Council has engaged with groups of high school students to share knowledge about climate change impacts, mitigation, adaptation, democracy, and related careers in local government through an interactive game.

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Synopsis

The sessions focused on net zero with the aim of keeping global warming to 1.5°C by cutting emissions by 2050. The students worked collaboratively, and discussed, debated and voted for policies which they thought would take them to net zero. Seven of the eight groups demonstrated a sharp reduction in emissions with most groups stressing how difficult choices are when they affect so many people.

Classroom of students and a teacher

The challenge

As a local employer with careers relating to Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), by July 2024, the Council were invited by West Lancashire College to participate in three one day events alongside other local and national organisations, with the purpose of bringing to life the variety of STEM-related careers and to assist local high school students to consider their future careers.

The objective for the Environmental Sustainability Team was to develop an interesting session, which could be completed within an hour that engaged up to 20 teenagers at a time and taught young people about climate change and careers.

The solution

The Environmental Sustainability Team decided to use the Financial Times Climate Game as the core of the interactive session. The goal of the game was to keep global warming to 1.5°C by cutting emissions to net zero by 2050 as well as to protect the environment, encourage living more sustainably and adapting to an already changing climate.

The groups dealt with carbon dioxide as well as greenhouse gases such as methane and were exposed to the causes, effects, and potential future impacts. They had to consider the most efficient methods of protecting people and nature for the planet to remain habitable through adaptation and mitigation. From the beginning, the game encouraged the groups to consider long-term investments and research showing that changes cannot be implemented overnight. Each action chosen cost 'effort points'. Groups that used more effort points early in the game benefitted by future actions costing less 'effort points', making reaching net zero easier. 

Importantly, the groups worked collaboratively. They were provided with opportunities to discuss the policy options in smaller teams and then all debated the options to get to net zero. Climate experts from the Council's Environmental Sustainability Team provided support and advice when the decision-makers called upon it. After the debates, the group voted on the policy decision they wanted to implement, the choice was decided through a majority vote. This was to replicate and explore how decisions are made by Council Committees; if there was a tie vote the final decision was decided by their lead council members (their teachers). 

Each group made a valiant effort but did not achieve net zero, however, they reduced their emissions and were close to net zero. In hindsight, the groups of students realised that specific decisions on infrastructure and research, early in the game, impacted the effort required for further options to reduce emissions. The decision process and debating were difficult when considering all aspects of climate change and differences of opinion, as students said they did not realise how hard it was to make difficult decisions that affect so many people.

The strategic game is based on published scientific research and emissions modelling developed in 2022 by the International Energy Agency (IEA) for the Financial Times. The scenarios used in the IEA’s “Net Zero by 2050” report were recalculated to track the temperature outcomes for specific pathways used in the game.

The impact

By July 2024, eight cohorts of young people (and approximately 134 learning hours) accessed the sessions where they discovered and learnt about local governmental democracy, climate change, new green technology and the variety of careers that link to mitigation and adaptation. 

The team received good feedback from the teachers, a teacher from Burscough Priory Academy in West Lancashire said 

They [the students] really enjoyed The Climate Game and worked well as a group to make decisions to lead them to reaching net zero carbon emissions by 2050. The discussions became lively as they all put their opinions forward! Back at school, we’ll definitely be using the activity in our chemistry lessons to show the students the thought-provoking decisions which will need to be made by world leaders in the coming years to reduce climate change.”

The engagement activity assisted the Council in implementing its Climate Change Strategy by engaging with the community, and Community Wealth Building Strategy by inspiring younger people to pursue careers in retrofit.

Lessons learned

The sessions were completed in July 2023, February 2024 and July 2024, with a noticeable difference in approach between the first two. 

In July 2023, the debating and voting process was originally organised by separating the group into 2 to 3 groups with the teams directly competing against each other, however, this took a considerable amount of time to orchestrate, feedback on their decisions to the game and a technical error in the game meant some groups lost more points than others. 

In February 2024, the debating process was made easier, with debating on each table, and then a collective voting system was used for the whole cohort. 

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