Columbia University & the SDSN Host The Climate Game: A Simulation of Global Climate Negotiations

New York, New York (April 19, 2026) — On April 18–19, 2026, Columbia University Center for Sustainable Development (CSD) and the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) convened The Climate Game, a two-day simulation of international climate diplomacy and global economic bargaining. Approximately sixty-four students from the Columbia Climate School, the School of International and Public Affairs, and Columbia College, organized into nine regional delegations representing the world’s principal emitting and climate-vulnerable regions, negotiated under time pressure toward a comprehensive global climate agreement.

“Climate change is the defining collective-action problem of the twenty-first century, yet three decades of formal climate diplomacy have consistently underdelivered,” said Prof. Jeffrey D. Sachs, President of the SDSN and Director of the CSD. “The question is not whether a globally beneficial agreement exists, but why it has been so persistently difficult to reach. The Climate Game asked our students to engage with that question not as an abstraction, but as a live constraint on decision-making.”

Across three structured rounds, the nine delegations (representing China, India, Europe, North America, ASEAN, Africa, Latin America, Russia, and the Gulf Cooperation Council) negotiated three central decisions: (1) the level of energy ambition, (2) the level of land-use ambition, and (3) the architecture of four multilateral funds, namely the Clean Climate Fund, the Adaptation Fund, the Loss and Damage Fund, and the Forest Fund. Every commitment was quantified in percent of GDP and tested against a shared economic-climate model calibrated for the exercise.

“What our students accomplished at the Climate Game showed that ambitious climate cooperation is still possible and that the next generation has both the rigor and the courage to make it happen,” said Sybil Fares, Senior Advisor to the SDSN President.

Each of the nine delegations was advised by senior mentors drawn from the United Nations (UN) system, Columbia faculty, and the international climate-policy community. Among the distinguished mentors were Dr. Mahmoud Mohieldin, UN Special Envoy on Financing the 2030 Agenda and UN Climate Champion for COP27; Ambassador Mohamed Edrees, Ambassador of the African Union to the UN; and Vuk Jeremić, former President of the 67th session of the UN General Assembly and founder of the Center for International Relations and Sustainable Development.

The simulation opened with welcoming remarks by Prof. Sachs, a keynote by leading climate scientist Dr. James Hansen, and a framing address on climate finance by Dr. Lisa Sachs, Director of the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment. Dean Alexis Abramson of the Columbia Climate School delivered closing remarks. The organizers extend their gratitude to Angela V. Olinto, Dean of Columbia’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and John R. MacArthur, President and Publisher of Harper’s Magazine, for their generous support of The Climate Game.

The Climate Game was organized under the leadership of Prof. Jeffrey Sachs, President of the SDSN and Director of the CSD. The organizing team comprised Sybil Fares, Senior Advisor on Middle East and Africa to the SDSN President; Celeste Díaz Muga, Program Associate for the Middle East and Africa, SDSN; Anastasia Shakhidzhanova, Special Assistant to the Director, CSD; and Mikaela Gebara, Research Assistant for the Middle East and Africa, SDSN.