Can You Solve the Climate Crisis?
Climate Interactive’s new climate simulator tool reveals what it will actually take to limit global warming to 1.5C by allowing users to role-play real policy decisions
By Mickey Snowdon, Communications Liaison at The Collider.
In conjunction with MIT Sloan, Climate Interactive released their brand-new En-ROADS tool, a cutting-edge online climate policy simulator that allows its users a chance to test a myriad of climate policy solutions in real-time and visualize a variety of climate impacts, at 2019’s COP25.
The United Nations’ 25th Climate Change Conference, aka COP 25 (the 25th Conference of the Parties), was held in Madrid, Spain this past December. The purpose of this annual conference is to assess and accelerate each country’s efforts at addressing climate change in order to reach the goals outlined in the Paris Agreement — namely limiting global warming well below two degrees Celsius (2C) above pre-industrial levels with strong encouragement to reduce warming below 1.5C.
Climate Interactive is a think tank focused on building the kind of climate action needed to meet these goals through its hands-on climate simulators, games, workshops, and seminars. Founded by Co-Directors Andrew Jones and Dr. Elizabeth Sawin in 2010, Climate Interactive’s tools connect everyone from policymakers to laypeople with real, feasible climate solutions. The organization has had its second home at The Collider since 2016 where they have led climate simulation workshops and seminars for the Asheville public and developed their tools and resources for the wider world.
Ellie Johnston, Climate Interactive’s Climate and Energy Lead, says the value of En-ROADS lies in its accessibility — by adjusting emissions levels based on specific sectors like energy, land use, consumption and agriculture, policymakers can see the global impacts that greenhouse gases have on our climate.
Both Jones and Johnston were present at COP25 this year, along with nearly 27,000 other attendees. Johnston says that Climate Interactive showed up with the aim to showcase how their tools can build both ambition and action to help governments and their countries reach the climate goals outlined in the Paris Agreements.
“Our tools can show governments that they have less time to reduce emissions than they may have thought. Bold action is needed now, and tools like En-ROADS substantiate this urgency by illuminating scientific research,” Johnston says.
Amy Harder, Energy Reporter for the news site Axios, called En-ROADS a “choose your own climate and energy adventure.” Unlike other climate modeling tools, En-ROADS was designed to be used by everyone from K-12 schools to churches — not just science researchers steeped in intimidating climate data. That being said, Johnston is clear that the tool’s primary audience is policymakers and business leaders who are in a place to make far-reaching decisions regarding climate change.
These decisions will have to be made sooner rather than later. The UN Environmental Programme’s annual Emissions Gap Report calls for a five-fold increase in emissions reductions over the next decade in order to keep global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. That’s a 7.6 percent reduction each year. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) 2018 report on global warming is clear that a 1.5C rise in global temperature will still come with a host of negative consequences, but a 2C temperature increase could present detrimental risks to crops, water, biodiversity, ecosystems, and ultimately human health and wellbeing.
According to Johnston, this only reinforces the need for more people to get their hands on En-ROADS. “In many ways, we are getting caught flat-footed in addressing climate change. There is a growing awareness around the issue, and an increase in people who want to take action, but many aren’t sure what it will take to mitigate the effects of climate change.”
When it comes to analytics tools, there are many models available all over the world, but most aren’t made to be shared publicly in an interactive format. Johnston says Climate Interactive built En-ROADS around Senior Advisor and MIT Sloan Professor John Sterman’s adage that “Research shows that showing people research does not work.” In this effort to address climate change, the organization has found that facilitating interactive experiences that put people in a position to experience the full scale of action needed to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions is the best way to get people involved.
“It’s a small group of people who want to sit down and learn to use a computer model on their own. It’s a much larger group who is willing to show up to an event and have other people guide them through how to use that model,” Johnston says.
Climate Interactive knew that building a tool wasn’t solely enough, so the organization also created two hands-on experiences that can be led with groups in conjunction with En-ROADS: the En-ROADS Climate Workshop and the Climate Action Simulation game. Both the Climate Workshop and the Simulation game give people with little to no knowledge of climate change the chance to role-play a president or other policymaker who must make decisions that will directly affect the Earth’s climate.
“These experiences are completely unique and eye-opening for everyone. Participants will find out very quickly that cutting our global emissions is not an easy task,” Johnston says.
Explore ways to use En-ROADS on your own or in a group, and learn how you can lead your own En-ROADS event by visiting the tool’s webpage.
