Weather, energy and carbon footprint: how Ferrata handles climate change

Climate change has no counter of its own in Ferrata. You get no points, badge or guilt trip for it. It shows up in the same place as a mortgage or insurance — in the monthly budget and in decisions that come back a few years later.

What can happen

Weather in the game follows the season: from May to August storms, gales and hail, in summer heatwaves, in spring and autumn floods. Most events are minor — cleaning and a repair for a few tens of euros. Big losses are rare but possible: a car smashed by hail, water in the flat, exceptionally damage worth a quarter to more than half the value of a home. Even a holiday can be spoiled.

Nobody calls the insurer over minor damage: in the game, insurance only applies to damage above 15% of monthly salary, and even then you pay part yourself as an excess. A flat in a flood zone is cheaper, but the premium is higher, flood damage is bigger, and after three payouts in ten years the insurer will not renew the contract.

Heatwaves

When your flat overheats in summer, the game offers air conditioning. It has a one-off price, running costs in the summer months and a lifespan of about twelve years — then you need a new one. Without it, heatwaves cut into sleep and health, most of all for older people in poorly insulated homes.

Emissions price

The EU is introducing a charge on emissions from transport fuels and heating (the ETS2 system). Ferrata can introduce it during the game — it is switched on per country. Where it applies, the game announces it two years ahead, and then fuel and heating get gradually more expensive. A player with a sports car feels it in the budget, a player with an electric car hardly at all. For housing, the energy class decides: a more efficient flat costs more to buy, but heating rises less.

Carbon footprint

At the end of the game Ferrata shows how much CO₂e would fall on one person with your car, home, travel and spending — per year and over a lifetime — next to the average for your country. The footprint is split into circumstances, meaning what your country and everyday life there bring, and decisions, meaning the difference you made yourself. That can be negative.

The footprint is only measured. It unlocks nothing, penalises nothing and does not enter the game result.

Mental health

Two rules apply and nothing more. An electric car or your own energy-efficient home that you can afford helps mental health slightly. The same decision that breaks your reserve takes from it. The size of the footprint does not touch mental health at all — guilt does not change behaviour, a sense that your actions have an effect does.

Where the numbers come from

• Carbon footprint per capita by country: Eurostat, 2023.
• Lifecycle emissions of cars: ICCT.
• Emissions price in transport and buildings: the EU ETS2 system.
• Ferrata is a simplified learning model, not a carbon footprint calculator.