Although most people are concerned about climate change, the debate over what to do to tackle the crisis can be more contentious, especially at Christmas when standards related to travel, gifts, and waste are at the forefront of people's minds.

In this case, people who are concerned about climate change and environmental sustainability may feel disconnected from family and friends, who may not want to engage in difficult conversations. Therefore, entertaining games can play a role in this situation.

New research on game design and climate action shows that games can be a fun way to stimulate engaging conversations that make climate change more understandable, enhance learning, and spark the imagination.

Games can refer to social, political, and economic responses while highlighting the importance of urgent action.

Here are five games that can stimulate conversations about climate change while providing entertainment during this year's Christmas holiday, highlighted by The Conversation.

Carbon City Zero

You can play Carbon City Zero, also known as the Zero Emission City, as a competitive, cooperative, or solo board game.

The game challenges players to use the resources available to them to build a carbon-free city before time runs out, and players buy and trade cards representing government, industry, and public actions.

To create a more sustainable city, players must overcome challenges such as reduced funding, public indifference, opposition, environmental misinformation, and global recession. In the competitive version, the first player to reduce carbon emissions to zero wins.

Cranky Uncle

The game Cranky Uncle is a wonderful way to entertain family members who need some screen time this holiday season.

This game, available through a free mobile app, contributes to turning the science of misinformation and climate denial into a game.

The application draws attention to how fake experts, logical fallacies, impossible-to-prove predictions, cherry-picking evidence, and conspiracy theories work together to undermine climate facts.

Players use humor to spot false information and steer clear of manipulation.

Daybreak game 

Daybreak, according to the website, is a cooperative game where everyone either succeeds or fails together to stop climate change.

Working together, a group of countries can achieve victory by mitigating the effects of climate change, adapting to it, and maintaining temperature increases to prevent crises. Players do this by reducing emissions, protecting carbon sinks, oceans, and rainforests, and building social, environmental, and infrastructural resilience.

This game does not shy away from the impacts of climate change and the urgent need for action, but it also offers solutions inspired by Project Drawdown, with QR codes that connect players to information outside the game.

Climate Dice

The game Climate Dice encourages players to create stories related to climate change and climate action. Players simply roll a wooden die with an image on each face, and the 42 different images, such as a car, a footprint, or a bird, provide visual cues on topics like nature, wildlife, crises, transportation, and procedures.

You can play this game with any number of people, finish it in a few minutes, or use it as a tool to create more intricate stories over extended periods of time. In the stories it creates, the game Climate Dice views climate change as a challenge that we must collectively overcome rather than merely a problem to solve.

CATAN: New Energies

The site mentioned that CATAN: New Energies is a competitive board game that focuses on the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources in the context of building new cities and towns. Players gather and trade resources, using them to build new cities.

Players start with cheap fossil fuels that cause pollution, but with their increased investment in renewable energy, there are rewards for sustainable strategies.

And if pollution levels remain high for too long, the game will end in disaster, and the player who invested more in renewable energy will win.

The players who create sustainable development and clean up pollution emerge as the winners, raising questions beyond the game about green growth, the idea that economic growth can be environmentally sustainable, and the challenges associated with the energy transition.