AARHUS CO2030

The climate debate has intensified in recent years. A steady stream of reports about looming disasters, melting glaciers, shrinking ice caps, howling hurricanes, thawing tundras and sea level rises has resulted in a general sense of impending doom. But the changes necessary to avoid this bleak future have been virtually absent. Danes ¬ and other populations in the western world ¬ have not changed our habits significantly: As a nation we are still heavy users of energy and as individuals we emit massive amounts of CO2. Perhaps we need another sort of arguments to make us change our behaviour?

The CO2030 game is an interactive tool aimed at supporting a lively debate focusing on the Municipality of Aarhus’ goal of CO2 neutrality by 2030. The basic idea was to involve citizens in a discussion about how we reduce our CO2 emissions ¬ both as a city and as individual citizens. As a player you get a general overview of your personal CO2 emissions based on your habits today. Subsequently, you can then compete with other players to reduce your emissions. Each player is presented with a number of scenarios and must decide whether to change their behavior of and at the same time choose among arguments that will actually make you change your habits.

The game was launched in Ridehuset in March 2009, in connection with the conference Beyond Kyoto. The game was part of a larger event, which served as the launch of a campaign under the title AARHUS CO2030. In 2009 the game toured the municipality of Aarhus as part of a citizen involvement process focusing on the climate plan for the municipality.