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Behavioural economics

Cooperate to save a changing planet

Nature Sustainability volume 6, pages 120–121 (2023)Cite this article

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A lack of regional and international collective action is the greatest barrier to achieving global environmental sustainability. Game theoretic experiments suggest that introducing shared goals could offer a path forward.

Can we prevent climate change from devastating communities and ecosystems worldwide? Can we feed the world without triggering a catastrophic loss of biodiversity? And can we bring about global sustainability without jeopardizing the needs of the vulnerable? On one level, the answer to these key questions is a resounding yes: remarkable progress on these fronts could be achieved with technical solutions that already exist1. But implementing these solutions will require meaningful collective action from nations, corporations and individuals, in spite of the short-term costs this will impose. Writing in Nature Sustainability, Tu et al.2 shed light on how such environmental stewardship could be achieved by examining how students play games designed to mimic common-pool resource use.

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Fig. 1: Changing seasons in Superior National Forest.

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  1. USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station, St. Paul, MN, USA

    Andrew R. Tilman

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  1. Andrew R. Tilman
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Correspondence to Andrew R. Tilman.

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The author declares no competing interests.

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Tilman, A.R. Cooperate to save a changing planet. Nat Sustain 6, 120–121 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-022-01011-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-022-01011-6

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