Hi, I'm Andrew Jones with Climate Interactive, and I'll show you around En-ROADS, the simulator that we built with MIT Sloan's Sustainability Initiative and Mentana Systems. Let's go check it out. En-ROADS is an online simulator that helps people see how actions, say, such as a carbon price, would affect outcomes such as the use of energy, greenhouse gas emissions, and overall temperature. temperature, seeing if you can come up with actions that limit warming all the way down to well below two degrees.
You can show a single action, such as a carbon price, or actions together in a combination, adding, say, energy efficiency in transportation or energy efficiency in buildings in industry. You click the buttons at the bottom, and a system dynamics model plays out the equations over time. On the left are global sources of primary energy.
The brown is coal, on top of it in red stacked is oil and natural gas in blue, renewables, wind and solar, hydro, bioenergy, and then nuclear on top. On the right are greenhouse gas net emissions from 2000 to 2100. On the right is the resulting temperature increase above pre-industrial temperatures by 2100 in Celsius and in Fahrenheit. Our top 12 graphs ranging from the drivers of the economy and energy demand, the cost of various supplies of energy, the use of energy, carbon dioxide emissions, greenhouse gas emissions, temperature, and sea level rise as one impact. You can also See over 100 graphs in various areas here in these graphs views.
A more advanced user may not want to just set a general carbon price, but could click on the three dots, and they want to explore a more specific one, say $75. Enter that here. On the right, one can both see the carbon price being set.
but also more information under the i button examples of what the policy means what the message is what the dynamics are the potential co-benefits and equity considerations the exact settings and some case studies one can also click in this corner and see the full user guide with this and the documentation behind many other policies as well as general information about One can undo a policy with this back button. One can redo it by pushing the front button. One can also see the changes as a bit of a movie, clicking replay, replay, last change, and see it played over three times.
One can also reset all of the policies and assumptions with this button. And if you've selected several graphs and you want to get back to home, one can hit the home button and get back to the main graphs. Climate Interactive at MIT Sloan built En-ROADS using the best available science, with data sources such as here and comparing historical data, sources such as NASA, from the Met Office and overall the studies as part of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the IPCC.
There are many comparisons for history here, such as energy from wind and solar, looking at the past. And in the future, we compare against other scenarios. Climate Interactive tested the model against the suite of large integrated assessment models or IAMs. from research laboratories around the world.
Here is a graph from 2000 to 2100 for greenhouse gas emissions from three of those integrated assessment models in an effort that was pulled together by the Network for Greening the Financial System. We input into En-ROADS similar inputs as their models and see what is the output and now you can see our results relative to theirs. We compare against the others, look for gaps, learn and improve the model, and overall build our confidence in En-ROADS.
All the equations in the model are shared in the reference guide that is available here on the En-ROADS website. One can review all of the equations in all of the sectors and all the parameters in the model. And many of the parameters can be changed here in the assumption sector. One can change, for example, the climate sensitivity to a doubling of carbon.
Watch the temperature in the top left. It could have been weaker or stronger or weaker. One can change it and also see some of the references behind the analysis shown here.
These assumptions are not just in the climate system but in many other parts of the overall system. En-ROADS is designed to be used in four different ways. by yourself or with a small group. You can just create a scenario and share it.
In a workshop, the En-ROADS Climate Workshop, with a group of people talking to each other about climate strategy. In a game, the Climate Action Simulation, which is a role-play game. Or the En-ROADS Student Assignment.
Here are some cool advanced climate policies and features in the model not to miss. When looking at the drivers of carbon dioxide emissions, one can view the four main drivers of CO2 emissions from energy. The drivers of global population, global growth in GDP per capita, the energy intensity of GDP, of carbon intensity of total final energy. Here in this view called Kaya graphs.
Here's some advanced graphs. to miss. Here are the top 12 of course. These are the ones that we tend to use the most.
One of them here is the stacked greenhouse gas emissions graph that can be very helpful. We also encourage you to go and look at the drivers of air pollution from sources, from energy. It can be interesting when you set a carbon price to go and look.
One can also explore the marginal cost of various energy supplies. Watch the green line of wind and solar that's getting so, so cheap over time. Of course, when it is even more subsidized, it gets even cheaper. Here are some advanced software features.
When you make a scenario that you like, say you get this scenario that gets all the way down to below two degrees, and you want the world to know that it is possible, one can go to the corner and click share your scenario. It can be shared immediately to Twitter or Facebook, LinkedIn, or by email. You can share it and send it to somebody else with a nice picture about your scenario.
Or one can copy the scenario as a URL. When you've made a scenario you like, you can also see a summary here in the Actions and Outcomes view. It lists explicitly all the policies you just changed, some of the outcomes, temperature, concentration, sea level rise, and cumulative avoided emissions.
When you have a question about the behavior of the model, you can go to the support page. There are hundreds of FAQs, frequently asked questions, that are already answered and one can also ask a specific question by creating what we call a new support ticket to ask a technical question. The simulator shares every month the release notes and has all of the new things.
When we update the model with the latest scientific discoveries, those release notes are shared online. Also, we have translated the simulator into many other languages and are always adding more over time. Overall, the purpose of En-ROADS is to improve decision-maker understanding of the dynamics of this overall system. as a path to addressing climate and climate-related equity. We hope you can use it to make a big difference in the world.
Go get em.