16th February 2012

The UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC) has today published instructions for running its challenging Energy Islands exercise.

Energy Islands is a group exercise that gives participants a unique opportunity to engage in international climate change negotiations and solve world carbon problems. It is suitable for, and has been tested on, participants from schools level (key stage 4) through to PhD students.

The exercise is set in a fictitious world where a powerful World Council has decreed that global carbon emissions will be reduced 30% by 2030. The participants take on the role of a Committee on Climate Change on one of three main islands. Their objective is to negotiate their islands share of the global target and to propose a low-carbon transition pathway that will meet this ambition.

The low-carbon transition must be achievable, which means the participants will need to demonstrate signed proof that they have agreements for technology transfer and resources to ensure that their plan can be achieved. Throughout the exercise the World Council demands updates from the islands which participants will have to prepare at very short notice.

Energy Islands was originally designed as a week-long exercise for PhD students at UKERC’s annual energy Summer School. Due to popular demand, a shorter version of the exercise was created for university and school students. The exercise has now been run with over 600 students.

Dr Jeff Hardy, Knowledge Exchange Manager at UKERC developed the Energy Islands exercise. He said:

“Energy Islands gives students the chance to understand what really happens at international climate change negotiations. In the past with Energy Islands we’ve had international espionage, agreements torn up, hard sell tactics and even blackmail. However, we’ve also seen deep negotiation, fair and reasonable compromise and elegant and equitable solutions arising from the exercise. In many ways, it gives us hope for the future”

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