An interactive climate change game, entitled Climate Challenge, will be launched by BBC, 16 January 2007.

Climate Challenge builds on the BBC's Climate Chaos collaboration with Climate Prediction, the world's largest computing experiment to try and produce a forecast of the climate in the 21st century.

The project will be funded by the BBC and produced by Red Redemption Ltd, an Oxford-based environmental games company.

Climate Challenge players will take "the hot seat" on BBC.co.uk and attempt to guide Europe from 2000 to 2100 while all the time making choices that could make the difference between a safe or
dangerous future for humanity.

Gobion Rowlands, Climate Challenge producer, says: "As we developed the game it was amazing seeing the science come together with the strategy elements. The chance to try out different strategies was exciting and seeing the subtle interplay of different policies and technologies whilst trying to negotiate a global response was both challenging and rewarding."

In addition, Climate Challenge is part of ongoing policy research by Oxford University Centre for the Environment examining how effectively computer games can communicate important subjects such as climate change.

As part of the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) Climate Challenge Fund - which aims to develop new and exciting ways of communicating climate change at a local, regional and national level to help change people's attitudes towards the issue - the BBC will collaborate with other government agencies to develop a second version of the game, geared primarily towards school children to play as a learning aide.