Using non-cooperative games to simulate ethical tensions in climate policy negotiations

Successfully implementing a system of global compliance to mitigate climate change requires collective, social decision making that is unprecedented among people with radically different values and radically different needs. Our novel pedagogy in sustainability ethics teaches future professionals about complex moral problems in a way that leverages their interests in experiment and experience through the use of non-cooperative game theory. This approach emphasizes active, participatory, and experiential learning that is intended to more deeply immerse students in questions of fairness, justice, and equity in the context of sustainability. Through testing the games and preparing complimentary educational material, we have found that the developed non-cooperative games are particularly effective at replicating the ethical tensions surrounding the issue of climate change. This method of teaching ethics may prime students to participate in more effective group deliberation in real-world policy negotiations.