Game play to address climate change adaptation

The Stockholm Environment Institute developed a terminology card game as part of the Future Resilience for African CiTies and Lands (FRACTAL) project to address gaps in understanding climate-related terms. The game is designed for use in 'Learning Labs' to create a 'level playing field' of knowledge between city stakeholders, scientists, and policy makers. Participants cooperatively categorize statements and actions under concepts such as weather, climate, adaptation, mitigation, sustainable development, and disaster risk reduction. The activity aims to facilitate 'transdisciplinary knowledge integration' and build working relationships to increase the uptake of science in urban policy and planning.

• The terminology card game was developed to address the fact that terminology can act as a barrier to understanding climate change and taking action, particularly for those with limited interdisciplinary experience who may misunderstand terms like weather, climate, adaptation, mitigation, sustainable development, and disaster risk reduction.
• The game serves as a foundational exercise for 'Learning Labs', which are interactive sessions intended to foster two-way learning between diverse city stakeholders and climate information producers/scientists. This process is intended to help scientists understand the socioeconomic, financial, and political challenges of policy decisions, while giving stakeholders a better understanding of climate impacts.
• The activity is designed to be a non-threatening icebreaker that establishes a shared knowledge base, which the document describes as a "level playing field", enabling more advanced co-production and co-exploration to support adaptation decision-making.
• The game's practical implementation involves participants cooperatively assigning descriptive statements or actions (e.g., "rainwater harvesting" or "a very hot day") to large cards representing concepts like weather, climate, adaptation, mitigation, development, and disaster risk reduction, followed by facilitator-led corrections and reflections.

APA

Stockholm Environment Institute (2020). Game play to address climate change adaptation. https://www.sei.org/publications/game-play-to-address-climate-change-adaptation/

Chicago

Stockholm Environment Institute. Game play to address climate change adaptation. 2020. https://www.sei.org/publications/game-play-to-address-climate-change-adaptation/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Stockholm Environment Institute |title=Game play to address climate change adaptation |date=28 January 2020 |url=https://www.sei.org/publications/game-play-to-address-climate-change-adaptation/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{stockholmenvironmentinstitute2020game, author = {{Stockholm Environment Institute}}, title = {{Game play to address climate change adaptation}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2020}, month = jan, url = {https://www.sei.org/publications/game-play-to-address-climate-change-adaptation/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }