The energy transition in a deregulated market is a kind of social dilemma in which the private benefit by continuously using fossil fuels conflicts the public benefit by promoting backstop energy with lower environmental damage. To encourage the energy transition under this dilemma situation, a carbon tax on fossil fuels is being implemented or considered around the world. This study experimentally investigated whether a carbon tax can increase the consumption of backstop energy, assuming the situation in which energy consumers repeatedly choose fossil fuels or backstop energy. Human participants played the multiplayer game simulating energy selection by consumers under three conditions: no carbon tax, low carbon tax, and high carbon tax conditions. Backstop energy consumption at the end of the game is higher in the low-tax and high-tax conditions compared with the no-tax condition. On the other hand, the backstop energy consumption in the first half of the game is lower in the conditions with taxes, indicating that the carbon tax delayed the beginning of the energy transition. These results suggest that a low carbon tax may act as an excuse to continuously use fossil fuels.

SIMINSOC (Simulated International Society) was developed as an educational and research game to simulate global environmental issues and North-South problems (Hirose 1997). In the game, about 40 participants are divided into four areas while experiencing competition and cooperation within and between the areas, and are faced with economic inequality and poverty, development, and environmental problems. It is a highly regarded educational and research game with a history of more than 25 years. Based on this game, the cSIMINSOC (computer-based SIMINSOC) game was developed to allow participants to play the game from their connected computers (Kakimoto & Hosono 2010). In it, players participate in the game through “chat” and menu operations on a server-mediated game interface. As the facilitators also use a purpose-made interface, it is also possible for the game to be run from a remote location. This paper describes the details of the attempt to implement the “fully remote” operation of the computer-based version of the SIMINSOC game, as well as four case studies involving 75 players. After discussing the advantages and disadvantages of its “fully remote” operations, the implications of this attempt are discussed for the range of remote activities that have become popular as a result of the recent COVID-19 crisis.

This study developed a “consensus game of the geothermal energy” to observe the consensus-building process among stakeholders with different interests. The game simulates the conflict between local and broader societal views on the management of common pool resources, using a case study of geothermal resources. The game represents the conflict caused by different views of the same geothermal resource. On the one hand, players who are responsible for the public sector emphasize public benefits and sustainable economic development from the broader perspective of the entire society. On the other hand, players who are attached to regions emphasize the local tourism resources and uniqueness of history, culture, and traditions from a local perspective. Ten games were conducted to capture the discrimination between games that successfully resolved the conflict and those that failed. The results suggested that the games achieving consensus demonstrated that: a) the players discussed the same commons acknowledging the different interests and values of their opponents, b) they recognized the situation as pursuing everyone's interests, rather than seeking their own interests, and shaped a shared recognition among them, and c) the ideas that incorporated the values of both sides emerged and were reflected the final decision.