Climate Education Games for the Climate Educator in All of Us
Interested in Climate Education games?
Games are an excellent way of exploring new and complicated ideas – while having fun with students, friends, or family. These 30 climate education games will get your students thinking about systems of climate change in no time. Read on to learn more!
Where can I play these games?
Many of these climate-action games are available for free online. Physical board games can be bought new or found used on websites like Board Game Geek. Many games are perfect for small groups. Others are suited for a day in the computer lab.
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This blog was last updated March 7th, 2024 we will continue to add games as we receive submissions. Please check back frequently to explore new options!
Our Partners
Climate Call
Grades 3-12+. 2 to 6 players.
Card Game available for purchase online through our partnership.
Find out how everyday activities affect the climate by playing Climate Call! The game is fun, engaging, informative and it typically leads to lively discussions and eye-opening discoveries! One round takes about 15 minutes to play.
Climate Fresk
Versions available for grades 2-12 and adults. 6-20 participants.
Available for licensing online through their website.
In just 3 hours, the collaborative Climate Fresk workshop will teach you the fundamental science behind climate change and empower you to take action.
Board Games
Tipping Point
Grades 6-12+. Multiplayer: 2-4 players
Available from $35 USD at the official website or used elsewhere.
Tipping Point is a beautiful game about adapting and mitigating climate change through building sustainable cities. The challenge comes from the accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which leads to extreme weather disasters and forces players to think creatively. Made sustainably in Europe.
Daybreak
Grades 6-12. Multiplayer: 1-4 players.
Available from $50 USD at the official website.
Daybreak is a cooperative game that places players as one of four world powers working to address climate change, building exciting new technologies and resilient communities to save the peoples of Earth. The game is designed by Matt Leacock, who famously created “Pandemic” the board game.
Melting Planet: The Cooperative Card Game for Survival
Grades 6-12+. Multiplayer. Playable in English and Spanish.
Available from $35 at Acción Pública’s website.
Melting Planet is a card game that promotes cooperative behaviors in problem solving. Instead of playing against other players, players work together to beat climate change. Melting Planet teaches us how to strategize as a united force with limited information and resources, and how to build trust and teams that can work together to solve the collective challenges that we face today as communities, organizations, and society.
Captain Polo’s World Tour
Grades: 6-12. Multiplayer: 2-4 players
Available from $51 USD at the official website.
Playable in both English and Spanish, Captain Polo’s World Tour takes players around the world, testing knowledge about climate change and its solutions.
Greenhouse Gas Game
Grades 6-8. Multiplayer, teams
Available online, for free, from the SCIED website. Printable!
This Greenhouse Gas Game enables students to interact with each other as they learn about the heat-trapping properties of greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change. They learn that human actions are altering the levels of greenhouse gasses in our atmosphere. Teams explore how long it takes to reach the top of the Temperature Tracker based on human activity, with the winner taking the longest to reach the top of the Temperature Tracker.
Online Games and Simulations
Minecraft, Education Edition
Grades 3-8. Single or Multiplayer.
Available online through Microsoft. Cost per player varies by device.
Minecraft’s education edition features beginner sustainability lessons and worlds to engage elementary problem solving, technology, and communication skills.
SDG Mosaic
Grades: 3-12+. 4-20 players.
Available for free online at the Ecotypes website.
SDG mosaic is a virtual card game about the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, introducing the diverse set of goals and challenging players to implement them among other pressing global priorities. Divide into teams of 4-6 players and distribute the SDGs among the team members before building a mosaic
Help the Community
Grades K-5. Single player.
Available online, for free, from the SCIED website.
Students add stamps to different scenes and learn about how we can help fight climate change!
Choose Our Future
Grades 6-12. Single player.
Available online, for free, from the SCIED website
Choose Our Future allows players to explore how everyday choices impact their real-life carbon footprint. The game can even simulate the effect of everybody making the same choices as the player.
Energy Choices and Climate Change
Grades 6-12. Single player.
Available online, for free, from the SCIED website.
Players work to help the ‘Joules family’ make choices that keep their greenhouse gas emissions low. This short but exciting simulation is perfect for an afternoon in the computer lab, along with SCIED’s other virtual experiences.
Global Energy Advisor
Grades 6-12. Single player.
Available online, for free, from the SCIED website.
Congratulations! You have a new job as a Global Energy Advisor and the people of the planet need your help. You must choose a new mix of energy sources to limit emissions while generating enough energy and keeping costs low.
The Very Simple Climate Model
Grades 6-12+. Single player.
Available online, for free, from the SCIED website.
Use this model to explore the relationships between carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere and our planet's average global temperature. Try out some "what if" scenarios to see how much our climate may warm during the coming century.
Illuminate
Grades 6-12+. Single player.
Available for free from the University of Waterloo.
Illuminate is an educational simulation game that aims to teach players about the impacts of climate change, explore ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and respond to climate risks. Players are faced with several missions, including the greening of infrastructure and protecting rural communities.
Survive the Century
Grades 6-12+. Single player.
Available online, for free from https://survivethecentury.net/
Survive the Century is an online simulation about making choices to save humanity in the face of the climate crisis, involving political, environmental, and social elements, and backed by real science.
Financial Times Climate Game
Grades 9+. Single player.
Available online, for free from Financial Times.
Can you reach net zero by 2050? The climate game simulates energy management decisions and challenges the player to cut CO2 emissions, starting in 2021.
En-ROADS
Grades: 9-12+
Available for free online at Climate Interactive’s website.
Players test their ideas to see what strategies will reduce emissions enough to keep the temperature rise within 1.5C of pre-industrial levels. Playable in English, Spanish, French, and Chinese, this game gives players the opportunity to explore the many challenges of solving climate change.
League for Green Leaders
Grades: 3-12.
Available for an annual class subscription on Springbay Studio’s website.
League for Green Leaders is an engaging, gamified online climate-action competition where students play to learn, play together, and play for our future. With learning-by-doing, students grow the agency of climate action and become leaders for our future. Players build virtual habitats, collaborate with teammates, and track life choices, blurring the lines between a game and real-life action.
Terra Nil
Grades 3-12+. Single player.
Demo available for free from the Museum and Climate Change Network Website.
Retails for $24.99 on the online game platform, Steam.
Terra Nil is an intricate environmental strategy game about transforming a barren wasteland into a thriving, balanced ecosystem. Players bring life back to a lifeless world by purifying soil, cleaning oceans, planting trees, and reintroducing wildlife, then leave without a trace.
