The founders of the Education Arcade at MIT stated that there are many intrinsic motivations for learning associated with games. The threat of failure is lowered. Games allow players to try, make mistakes or fail, and then try again without losing face. Discovery and application of learned skills in new contexts encourages exploration and experimentation. A sense of engagement continues during gaming. Computer games allow players to be stakeholders in the events that occur on the screen. Increasingly, there are a number of games being developed that help people learn about the issues involved in sustainable developement. Besides which ... they are fun!

To learn more click here.

SP Research Network member Matthew Paterson (University of Ottawa), in conjunction with Peter Newell (University of East Anglia), recently published a new book, "Climate Capitalism: Global Warming and the Transformation of the Global Economy."

(May 2010)
This new report, Measuring Up: Benchmarking Canada’s Competitiveness in a Low-Carbon World, is the first in the Climate Prosperity series of reports the NRTEE will issue examining how Canada can prosper through the economic risks and opportunities of climate change as part of this global low-carbon transition. The full document can be seen online here.

Paul Krugman, Princeton’s Nobel Prize winning economics professor, wrote an explanation of why, because of rather than despite, any uncertain about climate disruption, we must act now on building a green economy. It appeared at p. 34 of the April 11 New York Times Magazine. In the course of discussing this question, he provides a brief explanation of environmental economics, why markets sometimes work and sometimes do not work, what the costs of action and inaction are likely to be, and his own conclusions about why we must act.

A C.D. Howe backgrounder by authors Jean-Thomas Bernard and Jean-Yves Duclose explaining how increasing the price of electricity and the carbon tax - gradually - is the best way for Québec to reach its environmental and energy objectives. Click here to read the report.

In this report, Stefan Ambec and Paul Lanoie, researchers afilliated with CIRANO, a research centre based in Montréal, Québec, summarize the research done on the Porter hypothesis - and argue that the expenses incurred to reduce pollution can sometime be partly or completely compensated by gains made elsewhere. Click here to read it.

A report released on September 14^th, 2009 by the DB Climate Change Advisors (Deutsche Bank Group) highlights how Germany is a “prime example of how governments can help lead the transition to a cleaner energy supply through a long term and comprehensive policy framework.” To read the article, click here.

The Institute for Policy Integrity at the New York University School of Law has recently released a policy brief entitled "The Other Side of the Coin: The Economic Benefits of Climate Legislation". In the brief, J. Scott Holladay and Jason A. Schwartz conduct an informal analysis of the costs and benefits of the American Clean Energy and Security Act - and determine that the act is cost-benefit justified. To read the article, click here.

In the most recent Harvard Business Review, authors Ram Nidomolu, C.K. Prahalad and M.R. Rangaswami explain why sustainability isn't the burden on bottom lines that many executives believe it to be.

Click here to read the article.

In her contribution to the CPA, Nancy Olewiler warns that Canada is facing a crisis due to the mismanagement and loss of its natural resources and habitats. She argues that in order to secure natural capital in Canada, we must put a price on the ecological goods and services that our natural environment supplies. A number of market-based mechanisms are proposed to achieve this, including a tax on carbon and air pollutants (CAP tax), the revenues of which would be used to finance a national conservation plan.

The 2008 IRPP report is available here.