From Paris Agreement to Action: Enhancing Climate Change Familiarity and Situation Awareness

Abstract

The Paris Agreement was a monumental stride towards global climate change governance. It unlocked the climate change gridlock, introducing country-subjective commitments and a five-year review mechanism. To support the implementation of the Paris Agreement, we designed the Nzoia WeShareIt climate change game. Game sessions were conducted in June and July 2015, and 35 respondents completed a pre-and post-game situation awareness (SA) questionnaire and an in-game performance measurement system. The questionnaire uses a 10-dimensional situation awareness rating technique (SART). Subsequently, we conducted a factorial MANOVA (multivariate analysis of variance) to assess the interaction effects between familiarity, team, and gender. Results indicate an increase in situation awareness. However, policymakers' action was not contingent on the increased SA only, there was a significant interaction effect between familiarity and SA, to lead to climate change actions. Therefore, we recommend more emphasis on the role of familiarity in enhancing SA and, subsequently, supporting the implementation to the Paris five-year review country commitments. We also recommend the increased usage of symbols and capacity development of policymakers on connective capacity to enable them to span the climate change boundaries.

Influence of Personal Attributes and Demographic Diversity on Nzoia Basin Negotiation Outcomes

“…The Nzoia WeShareIt game was inspired by the original Nzoia WeShareIt game, which had been designed for the Nile river basin where different upstream and downstream countries had to negotiate to earn 'happy faces' [16][17][18][19]21,67]. Later, we customized the game for the smaller Nzoia basin within the larger Nile river ecosystem [17,20,67].…”

“…Second, players had their own individual goals of making their county government residents happy. Third, the game was designed to ensure that the competition between the shared goal and the individual goals is healthy and leads to the development of complementary roles and niches within the basin [16][17][18][19][20][21]41,67].…”

A Study of Trust and Cooperation in the Nzoia River Basin Using a Water Policy Game

“…Studies show an increasing difficulty for countries to make all their food and energy, within national geographical boundaries, due to scarce water resources [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]. Therefore, basin states are faced with a difficult decision: whether to maximize food and energy production or limit and/or stop production and buy the shortfall from other riparian states [11].…”

“…Rational decision-making supports cooperation aimed at maximizing production while minimizing costs, regardless of where the food or energy is produced within the basin [6]. Based on previous research, trust is a critical element needed when making the bold decision to stop or limit production and buy the shortfall from other riparian states [9,10,12]. The willingness by the parties to cooperate is sufficient to emit signals that get reciprocated and based on repeated reciprocation of signals that foster cooperation, trust can be cultivated [13] (p. 225).…”

“…The willingness by the parties to cooperate is sufficient to emit signals that get reciprocated and based on repeated reciprocation of signals that foster cooperation, trust can be cultivated [13] (p. 225). Some riparian states are not willing to cooperate, due to low levels of trust [7,9,10,12,14,15]. Therefore, many basin states are locked in an impasse: they need to cooperate to build trust, and they cannot cooperate because they lack the 'willingness to cooperate,' which is a core element that initiates cooperation [13] (p. 225).…”