Wittenborg Only the 3rd Dutch Institute to Play MIT's World Climate Change Game

11.12.2018

Game-changing Project Week Ahead for Wittenborg Students as they Delve into Climate Change as "UN Negotiators"

On 17 December, Wittenborg will become only the 3rd institute of higher education in the Netherlands to use the World Climate Simulation game – a role-playing exercise which simulates UN climate change negotiations – to raise awareness about this pressing issue among its students and help them understand the dynamics at play on a world stage like the UN.

Climate Change Project Week

Students will do the exercise as part of their final Project Week for 2018 which will span 3 days. Participants play negotiators representing countries and regional blocs that work to create an agreement that limits climate change by reducing GHG emissions. Wittenborg currently has students from between 80 and 100 different countries, and they will be divided according to their country of origin into developed, developing and under-developed regions.

Their proposals will be tested using a climate-policy-simulation model that provides participants science-based feedback on the implications of their proposals for atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations, global mean surface temperature, sea level rise, and other impacts.

The World Climate game is one of several exciting activities on the agenda – including the acclaimed documentary Before the Flood, which features Oscar-winner and environmental activist Leonardo di Caprio. In the film he meets with scientists, activists and world leaders to discuss the dangers of climate change and possible solutions.

During a Kick-Off Project Week meeting last week, attended by almost 150 students, Wittenborg’s chair of the executive board, Peter Birdsall, said the matter of climate change is close to his heart. “This is going to have a profound effect on your life – more so than on mine because I have advanced further in years than you. So it is important to think about these things.”

He told students not to think like a global citizen during the exercise. “You are representing the region you come from.”

Birdsall will take time out from his role as Executive Board President and personally lead the three day project week.