Simulation as Method of Research: Learning from Experiences of the COP15 Games

Climate change negotiations are highly contextual. Each meeting features unique dynamics, which may not be repeated again in any other meeting. For example, the Fifteenth Conference of the Parties (COP15) followed a yearlong pre-negotiation process and was highly affected by various parallel negotiations, such as European Union summits and APEC summit, as well as who or which political party currently sits in the government administration in each participating country. The highly contextualized nature of climate change negotiations presents methodological challenges for scholars intending to look on interdependencies of various factors (Penetrante 2012).