adminVideo games and climate change may seem like separate subjects, but games can bring environmental issues to a large audience through participation, storytelling and play. With around three billion players worldwide and that number continuing to grow, the industry has an opportunity to help people understand sustainability and consider practical action.
Sam Barratt, chief of youth, education and advocacy at the UN Environment Programme and co-founder of the Playing for the Planet Alliance, argues that the games industry can contribute to climate education and action.
Image credit: Playing for the Planet
Complex environmental challenges can feel distant or difficult to grasp. Interactive experiences offer another way to explore them: players can make choices, see consequences and engage with ideas alongside other people. That potential gives games a distinctive role in environmental education, alongside more traditional media.
How video games and climate change connect
When Playing for the Planet began in 2019, one of its aims was to make decarbonisation and sustainability engagement a normal part of the games industry. The initiative grew from work already being done by people including Jude Ower of Playmob and Trista Patterson, then at GRID-Arendal, who joined others to establish the alliance.
Environmental projects in games existed before the alliance, but they were often separate efforts. Bringing developers and other industry participants together created opportunities to share ideas, learn from one another and coordinate action. A lasting collaborative community matters because attention and resources can shift over time.
The Green Games Summit has highlighted how games can support learning about nature and environmental challenges. Developers have received recognition for projects with sustainability themes, while initiatives such as the Green Game Jam have also linked in-game engagement with real-world conservation and restoration. The programme has contributed to the planting of millions of trees and reached hundreds of millions of players.
Practical takeaway: Environmental themes are most likely to feel meaningful when they fit naturally into a game’s story and mechanics, rather than interrupting play with a message that feels disconnected.
Grounding climate stories in science
Accurate information is essential when games represent environmental change. Playing for the Planet has worked to connect scientific knowledge with game makers so that interactive experiences can reflect real-world evidence. One example is a climate-data experience that brings more than 100 years of IPCC climate data to console players.
Extreme weather events once associated with future climate scenarios are increasingly part of present-day experience. Games can help audiences picture possible futures that may otherwise be difficult to imagine. This can support understanding, but it is important that fictional scenarios are informed by credible science.
At the Green Games Summit, National Geographic Explorer Dr Tom Matthews discussed Hurricane Melissa’s severe impact on Jamaica’s landscape. He also described recent snowfall at the top of the Himalayas reaching 22 feet deep, more than three times previous records. Such events can be challenging to visualise. Interactive storytelling may help people consider what could happen and why preparation matters.
Image credit: TreesPlease Games
Evidence that games can influence choices
Many people in the games sector believe games can educate and motivate players, but evidence linking gameplay to real-world behaviour has been limited. Research presented at the Green Games Summit by behavioural scientists from the University of Oxford offers a measurable example.
Professor Stefania Innocenti spent three years studying whether games could affect player behaviour, with a focus on food choices. Her team developed four versions of a game and tested how environmental and social messages influenced decisions. More than 4,000 players then made choices in a simulated online supermarket.
Players who encountered the versions with environmental themes selected 20% more sustainable items than participants in the control group. The study found no reduction in the game’s appeal. It also pointed to an important design consideration: messages that feel too obvious or do not fit the gameplay may prompt resistance. Integrating ideas into the experience is therefore more useful than simply adding a message on top.
Why the games industry still has a role to play
The industry has faced significant disruption, including cutbacks, studio closures and cancelled games. Even so, many sustainability efforts have continued. Other creative sectors, including music, television and film, are also developing climate initiatives and sharing approaches that may be useful across industries.
Over the past six years, the UN Environment Programme has supported leadership in the games sector. Playing for the Planet has worked with around 60 games businesses of different sizes, encouraging collaboration and the adoption of effective practices. Sustainability toolkits and energy-saving eco modes for gaming platforms are among the approaches helping reduce environmental impact.
There is still more to do. As artificial intelligence and other technologies become more widely used, the industry’s energy demand and carbon intensity could rise. Improving energy efficiency is therefore an important priority for studios, platform providers and other participants across the games ecosystem.
Research suggests that studios can also help mobilise player communities around conservation and environmental protection. Thoughtful design, credible science and sustained collaboration can make this work more effective.
Conclusion: video games and climate change
Video games and climate change can intersect through education, more sustainable industry practices and carefully designed experiences that influence how players think and act. Games are not a substitute for policy or broader emissions reductions, but their reach and interactive nature give the industry meaningful ways to contribute. The central question remains: if the games community can help drive positive change, who else will take the lead?
