Our purpose
The Climate Fresk NGO has been working to bring people and organisations on board with the climate transition since the end of 2018. We do this by enabling the rapid growth of climate education and shared understanding of the challenge that climate change represents.
We began this mission in France and are now active in over 40 countries around the world. Climate Fresk has been growing exponentially, doubling the total number of workshop participants every 5 months. A testament to the educational tool itself, and our user license.
The NGO
Cédric Ringenbach founded the Climate Fresk NGO in 2018. Its goal is to raise awareness and participation of the workshops and to train and upskill Climate Fresk facilitators.
The organisation has a decentralised and participatory governance structure that was inspired by the Swedish Pirate Party whose principles include do-ocracy, transparency and the right to make mistakes.
You can learn more about the statutes and principles of the NGO here
Read our 2022 Annual Report (FR)
Our vision
Climate change is a complex problem that affects us all, but it is still very badly understood by the general population.
We don’t have much time, but by understanding the challenge we can take our response to the next level.
Climate Fresk prompts participants to take constructive action to help tackle climate change.
Our ambition is to create a network of people that is growing exponentially who can pass on this quality climate education in order to reach a social tipping point that will help guide us to a low carbon world.
Reaching the tipping point
Climate Fresk’s impact is growing exponentially: the number of volunteers is doubling every 5 months.
What does exponential growth mean?
It’s when a group’s rate of growth is proportional to its size. The more the group grows, the more the rate of growth increases. Whether it relates to the number of water lilies on a pond’s surface or grains of rice on a chessboard, if something is growing exponentially, people systematically and consistently underestimate how rapidly it will grow over time.
It’s the same for Climate Fresk! The more facilitators there are, the more participants there will be, and vice versa.
Around the world
The fight against climate change is a global challenge. Greenhouse gases don’t stop at borders, so reducing the quantity we emit is everyone’s responsibility.
After starting in France in 2018, Climate Fresk is now overseen by more than 80 country coordinators in more than 40 languages, and is growing exponentially around the world.
License
We have licensed the game (Creative Commons BY-NC-ND) in such a way that the knowledge can be diseeminated as widely as possible, and by anyone.
The usage of Climate Fresk is open and free, when it is run by a volunteer facilitator at a free event.
For commercial use or when the workshop is run within a company, certain usage rights apply which in turn fund the NGO and its activities.
This licensing makes the workshop accessible to anyone and also enables professionals to use it a commercial context to spread the knowledge within businesses.
A game created by Cédric Ringenbach
Founder and president, Cédric Ringenbach, 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). Cédric created the Climate Fresk game in 2015 and has continuously worked on it until it reached its current format.
The permanent team
The full-time Climate Fresk team has also grown exponentially. Its job is to serve the community of volunteers and help them carry out their activities while expanding their expertise. The team also ensures that the NGO is working on achieving its strategic goals.
Board of Directors
The Board of Directors is made of up 12 members, who are elected for 1 year. Each director has one vote. The Board of Directors is there to serve and support members who are finding ways to spread the Climate Fresk message more broadly.
The volunteers
Climate Fresk would be nothing without its thousands of volunteers who have been running workshops, training facilitators, and managing or taking part in special projects since the very beginning.
Join us!
