COP29 GAME REVIEW
THINK YOU CAN SOLVE THE CLIMATE CRISIS? YOU HAVE TWO HOURS
In the award-winning new board game Daybreak, one of the world’s most complex issues gets broken down in an easy-to-understand (and fun) way By Nicholas K. Smith, OPEC Fund
I t only took me 30 minutes to destroy the world. Despite ramping up a clean energy transition and picking away at industrial and livestock emissions, my well-intentioned actions left countless communities in crisis, unable to adapt to the realities of a world 2°C hotter than pre-industrial temperatures. Thankfully, the above situation was not real but part of a new board game that aims to translate the complex challenges of climate change into something most everyone can understand… and keep coming back to for more.
The game is called Daybreak (known in some countries as E-Mission), and unlike board games you may remember from childhood, this one does not involve rolling a pair of dice to advance down a path or bankrupting your opponents by assembling a real estate monopoly. Instead, Daybreak is part of a growing genre of “cooperative” board games where players work together to meet a common goal, whether it be defeating a giant monster, ending a global pandemic, or in this case, keeping the world’s temperature from rising more than 2°C. Daybreak can be played with up to four players or by yourself if you think you can untangle the most complex Gordian knot humanity has ever had to face. Each player represents one part of the world: USA, Europe, China or the Global South, here called the Majority World. Each player must strike a balance in putting resources into local projects that directly benefit themselves or global projects that benefit the others in order to reduce global net emissions or build up resilience against the ever-increasing number of disasters.
Everybody wins if you reach drawdown within six rounds of gameplay; in other words,
your emissions are reduced to a point where they can be safely absorbed so that global temperatures begin to drop. The game has been well received and in July won one of the industry’s top awards, the prestigious 2024 Kennerspiel des Jahres , or Connoisseur Game of the Year. Winning such an award translates to a global sales boost which helps ensure the game, and its message, reach a wide audience. A prize, according to one estimate, can push a game to half a million copies sold; a blockbuster in the world of tabletop games. This year’s prize jury highlighted Daybreak’s “brilliant” design that “shows the value of cooperation,” as well as noting the “fact that the projects and research ideas on the cards are based on real research and projects invites discussion and further education even after the game.” As representatives from governments and the international community gather for this year’s UN Climate Change Conference COP29 in Azerbaijan, they might want to take a page out of Daybreak’s book: to win the game, you have to work together.
“This is a tabletop game that we actually want people to play and enjoy. And then, as a knock-on effect, if they understand the climate stuff better, that’s wonderful.”
Matt Leacock, Daybreak co-creator
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