Up until a few weeks ago, I had never heard of "Climate Fresk" and at a guess, this will also be the case for many of you. I stumbled upon it in the self-service training catalog for employees at the company I work at in Germany where it was announced as a 3-hours workshop called "Klima Puzzle" (Climate Puzzle). Intrigued, I signed up and was one of 7 colleagues to be led through what turned out to be quite an interesting experience. After the workshop, I spend some time browsing the Climate Fresk website and then signed up for a training to become a "Climate Fresker" myself. This allows me to lead people through a Climate Fresk, which I now "only" need to find some time for!
Climate Fresk encourages the rapid and widespread spread of an understanding of climate issues. The efficiency of the teaching tool, the collaborative experience and the user licence have contributed to the exponential growth of Climate Fresk. You can read more about the NGO here.
Since its creation, more then 2 million people have participated in a Climate Fresk in 167 countries and 45 languages. More than 90,000 volunteers have been trained to lead a Climate Fresk themselves.
The Climate Fresk game was created by Cédric Ringenbach in 2015 and he has continuously worked on it until it reached its current format. Cédric is an engineer, lecturer and energy transition consultant. A climate change specialist since 2009, he ran The Shift Project between 2010 and 2016. He teaches about energy-climate issues at the “grandes écoles” universities in France (Sup’aéro, Ecoles Centrales, Sciences Po, HEC).
The Climate Fresk NGO was created in December 2018 by Cédric Ringenbach in order to accelerate the spread of the tool, to train and upskill Climate Fresk facilitators who are the international community of Freskers.
The purpose of "playing" Climate Fresk is to gain a proper understanding of the causes and effects of human-caused climate change. To help with that, a set of 42 cards is used which the participants need to put in the correct sequence. This happens over 5 rounds with 5 to 7 cards each which need to be placed correctly within the fresk which gets more complex with each round.
The facts in Climate Fresk are sourced from the most respected scientific publications: the IPCC reports. These are the same reports that inform global political and economic decision-making at the highest level. Climate Fresk is neutral and objective and presents only established scientific facts.
A snippet of an overall Climate fresk (Image: Marylou Mauricio)
A facilitator is there to help the participants along if they get stuck, but mostly keeps in the background while the participate leverage their collective intelligence. The Climate Fresk methodology doesn’t involve an expert presenting information to the group; instead, it requires all participants to take an active role in the building-up of the Fresk, becoming participative learners.
As participants link the causes and effects of climate change, they are able to take a step back and understand the systemic nature of the challenges.
A Climate Fresk game takes 3 hours and can be played in person or online. An experienced facilitor can work with up to 14 participants split into 2 or 3 groups with 5 to 7 people each. There is an adult version with 42 cards as well as one suitable for children aged 9+ which has fewer and simplified cards.
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The best way to find out what it is and how it works, is to invest 3 hours of your time and sign-up for one of the many online or onsite workshops offered around the globe by Climate Fresk volunteers. On this page, you can use filters to find a workshop near you or pick an online one in the timezone and language you prefer.
Please let us know in the comments if you had heard about Climate Fresk before and also what you think about this concept.
Posted by BaerbelW on Wednesday, 19 March, 2025
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