Representation Of Climate Change Research Articles

Implicated Realism and the Environmentalism of the Rich in Ben Lerner’s 10:04

Abstract: This essay argues that Ben Lerner’s novel 10:04 (2014) employs “implicated realism” to represent the environmentalism of the rich. Implicated realism is a self-reflexive aesthetic that reveals how the foundations of literary realism—narrative description, bourgeois settings, an emphasis on daily life—rely upon the forms of exploitation that have also produced the climate crisis. I demonstrate that implicated realism in 10:04 , paradoxically, consists of both hyperrealism and realist failure. Lerner’s novel applies hyperrealist description to seemingly innocuous scenes, uncovering their implication in the uneven distribution of environmental harm. Such hyperrealism exists alongside realist failure, which 10:04 both thematizes and performs. Through realist failure, then, implicated realism confronts the compromised history of realism and its association with possessive individualism and extractive capitalism. Consequently, although many ecocritics discount realism’s ability to represent climate change, this essay identifies implicated realism as a self-reflexive and adaptive mode.

Social media engagement in health and climate change: an exploratory analysis of Twitter

Social media are increasingly used by the public to share information and opinions. This study explores social media engagement in health and climate change through an analysis of English-language posts on Twitter, one of the most widely-used platforms. We searched Twitter from 21 March 2023 to 11 May 2023 for posts related to climate change using climate-related textwords and hashtags; we then used health keywords (‘health’, ‘wellbeing’, ‘illness’, ‘illnesses’, ‘disease’, ‘death’) to identify posts related to health. Focusing on posts from general public users, we investigated the proportion of climate change posts referring to health and, for a random sample of these tweets, undertook a content analysis to identify the ways in which climate change and health were represented. The content analysis drew on media research on ‘framing’, a selective process through which particular aspects of an issue—for example, its causes, impacts and solutions—are highlighted. 668 810 posts related to climate change were posted during the study period. Health-related text words were included in 2.3% (15 434) of these posts. The content analysis pointed to two divergent frames. The first frame represents climate change as real, with real effects on people’s health. The second frame portrays climate change as a hoax, with hoax-generated health effects. While the ‘reality’ frame does not engage with the hoax frame, the latter provides an insistent counter-narrative that questions trust in mainstream science and government policy. Neither frame engages with people’s experiences of health and climate change. In conclusion, our study points to low levels of engagement in health in a key forum for public discussions about climate change. It also asks whether the failure of the ‘reality’ frame to engage either with people’s lived experiences or with hoax framings may be contributing to a polarised debate about climate change and health and hindering consensus-building.

The effect of climate change on firms’ debt financing costs: Evidence from China

This paper matched the data for all non-financial listed firms in China from 1990 to 2017 with weather data and used temperature and precipitation to represent climate change. Using daily temperature and daily precipitation data, we constructed temperature bins and precipitation bins. This study presents a potential first empirical analysis that applies the risk perception theory to comprehensively examine the impacts of daily temperature and daily precipitation on firms' debt financing costs. Compared to a day with a suitable temperature, a day with temperatures above 30 °C increases firms' debt financing costs by 0.2411%. Compared to a sunny day, a day with torrential rain increases firms' financing costs by 0.2697%. Approximately $122.13 million and $20.49 million in extra costs were incurred across all firms in 2017. We conducted a series of heterogeneity tests. We found that the negative impacts of climate change on debt financing costs are greater for firms that investor considers more vulnerable. Finally, we found two possible mechanisms. First, from the firm's subjective initiative perspective, firms that respond proactively during seasons of high temperatures and heavy rains can reduce the negative impacts. Second, adverse weather caused by climate change may also increase firms' debt financing costs by blocking travel. These results enrich the literature on firms' debt financing costs and contribute to the understanding of climate change's impact on firms.

Quantification of climate change-driven water stress on thermal power plants in India

The objective of this work is to quantify the effect of climate change on the intra-annual water stress experienced by thermal power plants in India. The Integrated Environmental Control Model (IECM v11.5) is used to quantify the monthly water withdrawal and consumption for thermal power plants in four different water-stressed states of India. Current water withdrawal range was 2400–5500 l/MWh, and increased during the summer months by as much as 24 % compared to winter months. Simulations for two representative climate change scenarios, namely SSP2 – RCP 4.5 and SSP5 – RCP 8.5, showed 7–18 % increase in water withdrawal as compared to the present. For the state of Rajasthan, future surface water availability, estimated using Budyko's framework, decreased by more than 49 % for both scenarios as compared to present. Power plants in regions analysed will face water deficits during January-May, necessitating careful planning to manage climate change impacts in the future.

Knitting the in_visible: data-driven craftivism as feminist resistance

ABSTRACT Feminist scholars are drawing attention to how conventional forms of data representation fail to make visible the experiences of women and marginalized communities. While the problem of reinscribing the in_visibility of already under-visualized communities (and crises) is being acknowledged from a data science perspective, little attention is being paid to how craft redresses these issues of visibility. ‘Craftivism’, or the move towards activist craft, resists both the in_visibility of the form and of the labour that produces it. This essay examines two specific craftivism projects driven by data: Stitching the Curve, a year-long stitched pandemic data project, and the Tempestry Project, which represents climate change data through knitting. Drawing on Andre Brock’s critical technocultural discourse analysis as a methodology to understand how these craftivist data visualizations circulate on social media, we argue that in their form and their content, craftivist data visualizations redress what Perez terms the ‘gender data gap’ through embracing a feminist ethos. These projects offer an essential space for understanding craft’s potential for resistance, modelling the inherent subversion of employing the ‘feminine’ textile as a site for feminist visualization and meaning-making, while also subject to the same challenges as craft itself – dismissal, marginalization and in_visibility.

A sociotechnical framework to characterize tipping points in water supply systems

Population growth and a drying climate can push urban water supply across a tipping point into a new regime of water deficits. This research develops an analytical approach to characterize tipping points in water supply systems based on a loss of ecological resilience. A comprehensive sociotechnical modeling framework is developed to apply increasing stress gradients, representing climate change and population growth scenarios, to a water supply system and generate time series of deficits, which are analyzed to characterize tipping points. An agent-based modeling framework of water use, supply, and management simulates feedbacks and adaptations between human behavior and water infrastructure systems. Projections of climate change are generated using a stochastic reconstruction framework. A change point detection algorithm is applied to detect change points, and a tipping point rule selects a tipping point from a set of change points. The sociotechnical framework is applied for a case study to demonstrate tipping point analysis. A range of stress gradients are applied for a projected period, and tipping points are characterized for climate change scenarios and management strategies. The sociotechnical framework characterizes the resilience of water supply and can be applied to simulate, predict, and avert tipping points in water supply systems.

Asymmetric effects of climate variability on food security in Morocco: evidence from the nonlinear ARDL model

PurposeThis study aims to examine the asymmetric effects of average temperature (TP) and rainfall (RF) on the Moroccan food security, measured by the food production index (FPI), using annual data from 1961 to 2020.Design/methodology/approachThe study uses the Climate Change and Food Security Framework (CCFS) developed by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and employs the nonlinear auto-regressive distributed lag (NARDL) model and various econometric techniques to show the effects of climate variability in the short and long-term. It also examines if the impacts on Moroccan food security are asymmetric by analyzing the positive and negative partial sums of mean temperature and rainfall.FindingsThe study shows that RF has a long-term relationship with FPI, with increased RF leading to increased FPI and decreased RF leading to decreased FPI. FPI responds more strongly and persistently to a positive shock in RF than to an adverse shock. The study also identifies an asymmetric relationship between FPI and RF, with increased TP enhancing food output in the long run and a decrease reducing food production in the long run.Research limitations/implicationsThe current study could have some limitations. For instance, there are several other non-climate factors that might potentially impact food security. In particular, CO2 emissions which from the literature is a key variable that represent climate change impact on food security, was not included. The present research has not included those factors mainly because adding more variables to the model reduces the degree of freedom available to estimate the parameters, resulting in inaccurate results.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to the food security literature by utilizing the latest asymmetry methodology to decompose climate changes into their positive and negative trends and examining the contrasting impacts food production.

Slow Dramaturgies

Whether scientist, politician, or theatre-maker, the challenge one faces in representing climate change is an accompanying epistemic crisis; it is contingent upon and resistant to legibility, and we cannot apprehend it in its totality. Freud’s Beyond the Pleasure Principle poses a potential aesthetic and dramaturgical model for this challenge.

Between “Empowering” and “Blaming” Mechanisms in Developing Political/Economic Responses to Climate Change

This conceptual paper reviews four dimensions of the climate change (CC) debate concerning perception, framing, and political and economic dimensions of CC. It attempts to address the question posed by sociological research as to what can be done to reduce the social forces driving CC. In doing so, it attempts to uncover mechanisms that delay or prevent the social change required to combat CC. Such mechanisms call into question the Ecological Modernization Theory's assumption that modern societies embrace environmental sustainability with no radical intervention to change the social, political, and economic order. It specifically considers how the representation of CC as a distant phenomenon, in both temporal and physical terms, might contribute to social disengagement. A reflection on the interdependencies among science, political economy, media, and individual perceptions guides this paper. All these social forces also shape the CC discourse in diverse ways according to the evolution of the phenomenon over time (in scientific, but also in political and economic terms) and in relation to its spatial dimension (global/national/local). The variety of climate discourses contributes to increasing political uncertainty; however, this is not the only factor that generates confusion around the CC. Multiple and contrasting information might trigger a “blaming/empowering game” that works at various levels. This mechanism simultaneously promotes the necessity for sustainable development and perpetuates “business as usual‐oriented” practices. Implementing sustainable development is therefore constantly undermined by a difficulty in identifying “heroes” and “devils” in the context of CC.

COP26, human geography and earth futures: introduction to a theme section

ABSTRACT The rationale for this theme section on ‘COP26, human geography and earth futures’ is explained. A previous special issue of this journal – entitled ‘Climate change, COP26 and the crucible of crisis’, published during 2020 in anticipation of COP26 – is deployed to frame the specifically human-geographical concerns of the present theme section. Contributions to the theme section were initially prepared and presented in late-2021 and early-2022, around the time of COP26 itself, before then being substantially revised for publication here. The ‘placedness’ of COP26 in the city of Glasgow is important for four of the articles in this section, taking seriously certain human geographies of COP26 itself as windows on the wider problematics of climate change, its injustices and how to respond. Further aspects of understanding, imagining and representing climate change then shape the other three articles, exploring different ways in which diverse actors – with different knowledges, expertise and orientations – potentially make a difference to thinking climate change past, present and future.

Labour productivity and economic impacts of carbon mitigation: a modelling study and benefit–cost analysis

Despite the emerging carbon neutrality pledges from different countries, it is still unclear how much these pledges would cost and how the costs would compare with the economic benefits. Comparisons at the country level are important for tightening country-specific emissions trajectories to keep the temperature limit targets outlined in the Paris Agreement within reach. We aimed to systematically estimate avoided heat-related labour productivity losses against the costs of climate change mitigation at country and regional levels. In this modelling study, to address the above-mentioned research gaps, we first selected two representative climate change scenarios (Representative Concentration Pathway 6.0 [RCP6.0] scenario, a higher warming scenario representing limited mitigation pledges before the Paris Agreement with around 3°C warming by the end of this century; and RCP2.6 scenario, a lower warming scenario assuming global temperature rise is limited to 2°C) and estimated heat-related labour productivity loss using the exposure-response function at country and regional levels. By representing the direct heat-related labour productivity losses in a multiregional global computable general equilibrium model, we then did a benefit-cost analysis to quantify the economic benefits of avoided heat-related labour productivity losses as well as the estimated reduction in gross domestic product (GDP) related to carbon reduction. By 2100, the overall economic losses due to heat-related labour productivity loss could range from about 1·5% of global GDP under the RCP6.0 scenario to about 0·1% of global GDP under the RCP2.6 scenario. The productivity losses will be highly concentrated in low-latitude regions, especially in southeast Asia, India, and the Middle East, implying the necessity of additional adaptation measures. By 2100, about 51·8% of global climate change mitigation costs could be offset by economic benefits from reduced labour productivity losses. Cumulatively, about 17·0% of climate change mitigation costs could be offset by the economic benefits between 2020 and 2100, when using a 2% social discounting rate. The costs and benefits of climate change mitigation will be distributed highly unevenly across regions due to their varying climate zones and economic structures. Regions with benefits from reduced productivity losses higher than mitigation costs are mainly low-latitude and tropical regions with lower income and lower emissions, such as southeast Asia, Brazil, and Mexico. More than half the climate change mitigation costs could be offset by the economic benefits by 2100 for the world's largest emitters, including the USA, China, the EU, and India. Low benefit-cost ratios are expected in economies that rely on fossil fuels, such as Canada, Russia, and the Middle East. Although pledging carbon neutrality implies radical changes to most economies, substantial health and economic gains can be achieved by reduced heat-related labour productivity loss, even without accounting for other benefits. The benefit-cost analysis in this study shows the potential for choosing more stringent climate change mitigation pathways in some regions. Regions with low benefit-cost ratios need to restructure their economies to reduce mitigation costs as well as losses from declined fossil fuel exports. National Natural Science Foundation of China, Tsinghua-Toyota Joint Research Fund, the Wellcome Trust, Tsinghua University-China Three Gorges Corporation Joint Research Center for Climate Governance Mechanism and Green Low-carbon Transformation Strategy, the National Research Foundation, Prime Minister's Office, Singapore (Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise [CREATE] programme), and the Global Energy Interconnection Development and Coorperation Organization.

Forest Degradation Index: A Tool for Forest Vulnerability Assessment in Indian Western Himalaya

The global climate is showing altered temperatures and precipitation levels. Forests can be a stabilizing force in climate change. They regulate the nutrient cycle, protect species and diversity, and support livelihoods that drive holistic growth. Presently, the forest ecosystem’s capacity to withstand change is being undermined by the rate of change, along with anthropogenic pressures and the specificities of mountainous regions. Here, we attempted to design a ‘forest vulnerability index’ using field measurements and household surveys. A total of 71 quadrants were laid out, and 545 respondents were interviewed in 91 villages along the altitudinal gradient (altitude < 1200 m asl (Zone A), 1200–1800 m asl (Zone B), and >1800 m asl (Zone C)) of the Pauri district of Uttarakhand, India. The village-level data were normalized and combined to represent climate change impacts and the dimension of vulnerability. The IPCC (2014) protocol was used to assess forest vulnerability. The highest vulnerability was recorded in Zone ‘B’, and higher sensitivity, higher climate change impacts, and lower adaptive capacities were recorded in Zone ‘B’ and ‘C’. The approach is comparable within the district and between the states. In enhancing our shared understanding of forest degradation, the results are of value to policy/decision-makers, implementers, and adaptation funding agencies, who can use them to assess the scale, cause, and actions for adaptation.

On Why Less is More in Climate Fiction

In the current climate crisis, we count more than ever on art and literature.1 Theorists and critics repeatedly emphasize the role of literature and imagination in overcoming an impasse in climate change communication through science and data.2 In genres like speculative fiction and science fiction, or, for convenience, the umbrella genre/category of climate fiction, writers already narrativize climate change and speculate on its futures.3 Yet, there is much critique and contestation on how climate fiction may properly respond to the climate crisis, what affects it may create, and whether it could move the public to act. Adam Trexler and Adeline Johns-Putra have done extensive research on climate change representation in contemporary culture. One major frame for representing climate change in their surveys is, expectedly, a future dystopia or apocalypse; Johns–Putra writes: “Overwhelmingly, climate change appears in novels as part of a futuristic dystopian and/or postapocalyptic setting” (269).4 Climate change here refers to social upheavals, civilization collapse, abandoned cities, violence, authoritarian rule, along with environmental degradation, extinctions, and loss of land. For many commentators, however, this representation seems to be more of a problem than a solution. These novels are said to “evade most of the present-day moral [and] political dilemmas by simply jumping ahead to some far more straightforward depiction of future disaster,” and they “inoculate us against the very real object that has intruded into ecological, social, and psychic space” (Clark 78-79; Morton 103–04). They are alarmist, or they rather commodify apocalypse as entertainment (Hoggert 261; Swyngedouw 219). They invest in the “charisma of crisis,” and they “contribute to negative public perceptions of environmentalism” (LeMenager 225; Seymour 54).

Impacts of Climate Change and Non-Point-Source Pollution on Water Quality and Algal Blooms in the Shoalhaven River Estuary, NSW, Australia

This study quantifies some of the potential impacts of climate change and nutrient pollution to identify the most important factors on water quality changes and algal blooms in the study region. Three variables, air temperature and streamflow, representing climate change, and nutrient runoff, were varied in eight hypothetical scenarios to determine their impact on water quality and algal blooms by the calibrated and validated water quality model QUAL2K. Water quality was assessed by the concentrations of dissolved oxygen, total nitrogen, and phosphorus. Algal blooms were identified by phytoplankton concentration. An increase in air temperature of up to 2 °C resulted in an average increase of 3% in water temperature and 4.79% in phytoplankton concentration, and an average decrease of 0.48% in dissolved-oxygen concentration. Projected decreases in streamflow not only made the above phenomenon more significant but also significantly increased the concentration of total nitrogen, total phosphorus, and phytoplankton with the same pollution inputs. Under climate change, the biggest cause of concern for estuarine water quality is reduced streamflow due to decreases in rainfall. Water quality improvement is possible by regulating the concentration of non-point-source pollution discharge. By reducing nutrient runoff, the total nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations were also reduced, resulting in a significant increase in the dissolved oxygen concentration. This study highlights the most significant factors for managing water quality in estuaries subject to climate change.

Social Engagement with climate change: principles for effective visual representation on social media

ABSTRACT Climate change communication on social media plays a prominent role in efforts undertaken by state agencies, NGOs, and international organizations, to make citizens aware of this phenomenon. The images used to communicate climate change are of great importance, since they can help to effectively raise citizen awareness. Building upon news values theory and the concept of availability heuristics, this research paper aims to identify principles that can be used for effective visual communication of climate change on social media on a cross-national scale, based upon analyses of characteristics of images that foster interaction on Twitter. We conducted a content analysis of a random selection of images (photographs, illustrations, and graphics, n = 380), posted on Twitter that were included in the so-called ‘top tweets’ about climate change. The results indicate that the types of images that are used on social media are relatively similar to those employed by conventional media, although images of identifiable people are less frequently shown on social media. We also deduced that four practical principles are especially relevant to foster user interaction on Twitter through images: (i) show ‘real people’ (i.e. non-staged images of people that transmit real emotions), (ii) tell a story, (iii) include a local connection, and (iv) show impacts or actions by people who are directly affected. These practical principles are based on the more general principles of meaningfulness and personification, two foundations that can help to overcome some of the main barriers to citizens’ perception of climate change as a relevant issue with serious consequences in their lives. Campaigns on social media that use imagery based on these practical and general principles can be effective in communicating the shared responsibility to address climate change. This can have a relevant impact on social perception, since it can encourage citizens to care about climate, which is regarded as necessary to increase participation in climate action. Key policy insights Social media can play a prominent role in campaigns to make citizens aware of climate change. Images can help to effectively raise citizen awareness of climate change. Four practical principles can be effective in increasing user interaction on social media with images about climate: show ‘real’ people, tell a story, include a local connection, and show people who are directly affected. Visual campaigns based on the more general principles of meaningfulness and personification can be effective in representing climate change as a relevant issue in citizens’ lives. These practical and more general principles can have a relevant impact on the social perception of climate change and increase citizen participation in climate debate and action.

This Is What Climate Change Looks Like: McKenzie Wark’s Post-Literary Critiques Give Equal Value to Participation

This essay revisits a debate about literary fiction’s ability to depict the consequences of climate change. Philosopher McKenzie Wark’s 2017 essay, ‘On the Obsolescence of the Bourgeois Novel in the Anthropocene’, offers one of many critiques of climate fiction, such as Amitav Ghosh’s influential book, The Great Derangement. But while Ghosh sees a shortcoming in contemporary novels in their lack of representation of major climate events, Wark emphasises the importance of collective action, conversation, and connection, beyond the limits of literature. Since Wark’s intervention, the global School Strike for Climate in 2019 and 2020 brought more participatory post-literary forms to represent climate change. Jean-Luc Nancy’s theory of participation, that there is no mimesis without participation ( methexis), sees a tense relation between the two rather than an opposition or conflict. I argue that Wark, by not undervaluing participation, disrupts a hierarchy that privileges the imitator at the expense of the imitation. To explore this relation, I consider how the slogan ‘there is no Planet B’ forms a snapshot of our twenty-first-century mimetic condition, from which no imitative representation will save us. Can Wark expand the vision of another relational kind of femininity in her later writing to support the demand to take part in transformational action against climate catastrophe, beyond mimetic representation carried in the form of the novel?

The Role of Late-Night Infotainment Comedy in Communicating Climate Change Consensus

ABSTRACT Climate change is a politically-polarized issue, with conservatives less likely than liberals to support mitigation and adaptation policies needed to reduce its impacts. This study aimed to examine whether John Oliver’s “A Mathematically Representative Climate Change Debate” clip on his program Last Week Tonight polarized or depolarized a politically-diverse audience on climate policy support and behavioral intentions. One hundred and fifty-nine participants, recruited via Amazon MTurk (94 female, 64 male, one not stated, Mage = 51.07, SDage = 16.35), were presented with either John Oliver’s climate change consensus clip, or a humorous video unrelated to climate change. Although the climate change consensus clip did not reduce polarization on mitigation policy support (or increase it), relative to a control, it resulted in larger polarization on support for adaptation policies, and higher climate action intentions among liberals but not conservatives.

A Hydrological Modeling Approach for Assessing the Impacts of Climate Change on Runoff Regimes in Slovakia

The changing climate is a concern with regard to sustainable water resources. Projections of the runoff in future climate conditions are needed for long-term planning of water resources and flood protection. In this study, we evaluate the possible climate change impacts on the runoff regime in eight selected basins located in the whole territory of Slovakia. The projected runoff in the basins studied for the reference period (1981–2010) and three future time horizons (2011–2040, 2041–2070, and 2071–2100) was simulated using the HBV (Hydrologiska Byråns Vattenbalansavdelning) bucket-type model (the TUW (Technische Universität Wien) model). A calibration strategy based on the selection of the most suitable decade in the observation period for the parameterization of the model was applied. The model was first calibrated using observations, and then was driven by the precipitation and air temperatures projected by the KNMI (Koninklijk Nederlands Meteorologisch Instituut) and MPI (Max Planck Institute) regional climate models (RCM) under the A1B emission scenario. The model’s performance metrics and a visual inspection showed that the simulated runoff using downscaled inputs from both RCM models for the reference period represents the simulated hydrological regimes well. An evaluation of the future, which was performed by considering the representative climate change scenarios, indicated that changes in the long-term runoff’s seasonality and extremality could be expected in the future. In the winter months, the runoff should increase, and decrease in the summer months compared to the reference period. The maximum annual daily runoff could be more extreme for the later time horizons (according to the KNMI scenario for 2071–2100). The results from this study could be useful for policymakers and river basin authorities for the optimum planning and management of water resources under a changing climate.

Settler Belonging in Crisis: Non-Indigenous Australian Literary Climate Fiction and the Challenge of “The New”

In the past decade, an increasing number of novelists have undertaken the task of narrativizing and representing climate change. In both the academy and beyond, this undertaking has often been theorized not only as representational, but also as motivation to a “wider and deeper climate consciousness” (Schneider-Mayerson 474) in an overtly political and pedagogical project (Chakrabarty 2009, 2012; Rigby; Siperstein). Several theorists have suggested that imagining future scenarios such as climate change through fiction may be more effective as a communicative strategy, because of fiction’s capacity to “provide a personal viewpoint” (Pahl and Bauer 157), to enable reflection on a reader’s own “commitments and concerns” (Miall and Kuiken 351), and to ‘augment everyday cognition’ (Oatley 618). Similar sentiments echo in the literary market, as evidenced by the British writer Nina Allen, who noted that, celebrating the achievements of Cynan Jones’ 2018 novel Stillicide, many recent climate fictions might be characterized by their efforts to “imagine the effects of climate at both the global and personal level” (2019). Under such paradigms, the power of climate fiction is located in its capacity to breach the gap between the expected social realism of contemporary litera ture—and its common focalization through individual experience—with the spectacular, world bending realities of climate crisis.

Game-based Climate Change Engagement

Video games have risen as a popular medium with the potential to become a powerful tool for public climate change engagement. However, little is known about how existing digital games can fulfill this role. This study systematically compiles 150 video games that represent climate change, including serious (n = 109) and for entertainment (n = 41). The games are analyzed by adapting an existing framework (15 dimensions: achievable, challenging, concrete, credible, efficacy-enhancing, experiential learning, feedback-oriented, fun, identity-driven, levelling-up, meaningful, narrative-driven, reward-driven, simulating, social) and statistically compared. The analysis reveals that most games comply with most recommended attributes, but credibility, achievability, meaningfulness, and social features are uncommon or rare. Statistical results comparing serious games and games for entertainment associate six attributes with serious games (achievable, challenging, credible, efficacy-enhancing, experiential learning, feedback-oriented), and one (narrative-driven) with games for entertainment. The findings suggest that researchers would benefit from widening their lens to detect previously overlooked opportunities for game-based climate change engagement, communication, and education. The study also provides a systematic mapping of extant games depicting climate change for interested developers, designers and educators.