A free, global-access climate-simulation tool aims to show the world that climate-change recovery is possible and offer world leaders the opportunity to create a well-rounded plan of action.
The simulation tool from Climate Interactive, called En-ROADs, can be used by individuals and groups. It allows adjustments across simulated industries and sectors to immediately show changes in the global-temperature increase.
Group events vary based on the audience but are essentially role-playing games similar to the Model United Nations. These events were developed to help policy makers, world leaders, researchers, scientists, students, etc., create a multi-faceted plan of action to ensure that global warming stops at 1.5 degrees Celsius, below the 2 degrees Celsius set out by the 2015 Paris Agreement.
Adjustable markers in the simulator either raise or decrease the temperature, depending on actions taken.
The group activity assigns a role to each player, such as a fossil-fuel-company executive, a government, a community representative or a clean-technology company.
En-ROADS offers insights that support the learning of people from any sector, country and age.
– Climate Interactive’s Yasmeen Zahar
Participants will lobby for their country or industry’s interests. They will discuss, negotiate and come to an agreement with other participants on how to ensure that the global temperature does not pass that that 1.5 degree mark.
Some actions that participants may take to decrease the global temperature include: implementing a reduction in fossil fuels, increasing green technologies, introducing a carbon tax or increasing reforestation. The digital tool will record adjustments as agreements are made and in real time. The process takes two to three hours and can be played in person or online.
IMAGE: Pixabay“Since the release of En-ROADS, nearly 250,000 people in 140 countries have participated in an event with the simulator. En-ROADS offers insights that support the learning of people from any sector, country and age, and helps them gain grounded knowledge of impactful and equitable climate solutions,” Climate Interactive’s Yasmeen Zahar tells KUST Review.
En-ROADS offers free online training on how to run the simulation or the option to have representatives from the organization host and moderate. Groups can have anywhere from 12 to 300 participants.
The simulator was developed by the MIT Sloan Sustainability Initiative and Ventana Systems.
Get the latest articles, news and other updates from Khalifa University Science and Tech Review magazine
