Exploring the En-ROADS Climate Solutions Simulator
A Powerful Tool for Understanding Climate Change
Today, I’d like to show you the En-ROADS Climate Solutions Simulator, an amazing tool I recently discovered.
The En-ROADS Climate Solutions Simulator is a powerful and fast climate solutions scenario tool for understanding how we can achieve our climate goals through changes in energy, land use, consumption, agriculture, and other policies.
The interface features an easy-to-use dashboard that visualises the impact of various human activities on climate change through dynamic bars. These bars represent current trends and show a business-as-usual scenario, which takes us straight to 3.3°C above pre-industrial levels by 2100. This is a catastrophic outcome.
The simulator’s default “business-as-usual” scenario paints a concerning picture of the future, projecting a temperature increase of 3.3°C above pre-industrial levels by 2100. This catastrophic outcome would render large swaths of the low and mid-latitudes uninhabitable because of heat stress and drought. We would also see a marked increase in the frequency and intensity of heatwaves, heavy rains, and droughts, leading to reduced crop yields, water scarcity, and heightened health risks for much of the global population.
Under such a scenario, by 2100, most of the low and mid-latitudes could become uninhabitable because of heat stress or drought. We could see a marked increase in the frequency and intensity of heatwaves, heavy rains, and droughts across different regions. Higher temperatures will lead to reduced crop yields, jeopardising food security, while most populations will struggle for fresh water despite stronger precipitation in some areas. Furthermore, over a quarter of the global population may experience severe heat stress each year, increasing the risk of temperature-related health issues.
The En-ROADS Simulator allows users to modify variables such as global GDP, energy supply and efficiency, technological advances, and carbon pricing to see how they affect carbon emissions, global temperatures, and other factors. By adjusting the interactive bars, users can try out various scenarios. What happens if we reduce fossil fuels and subsidise renewables? What if there is a high increase in the global population and no decrease in fossil fuel consumption? What happens if we significantly reduce deforestation or even increase the number of forests by planting trees?
It’s a great tool designed to be user-friendly for policy workshops and educational role-playing games, making it a useful asset for anyone interested in understanding and shaping the long-term impacts of global policy and investment decisions on climate change.
En-ROADS is being developed by Climate Interactive, Ventana Systems, UML Climate Change Initiative, and MIT Sloan.