EUCalc

The EUCalc project will deliver an urgently needed comprehensive framework for research, business, and public sector decision makers which identifies and enables an appraisal of synergies and trade-offs of feasible European decarbonisation pathways. The novel and pragmatic modelling approach adopted is rooted between pure complex energy system and emissions models and integrated impact assessment tools. It introduces an intermediate level of complexity and a multi-sector approach that is focused on supporting decision making and will be developed in a co-design process with a broad range of scientific and societal actors. EUCalc explores the impact of the choices that can be made in different sectors, including power and heat generation, transport, industry, buildings, agriculture, and food and of the underlying lifestyle choices of Europe’s citizens in terms of the climatological, societal, and economic consequences. For politicians and policy makers at the European and member state levels, stakeholders and innovators, EUCalc will provide a transitions pathways explorer, which can be used as a concrete planning tool for reconciling the urgent need for technological and societal change, against the associated inertia and lock-in effects. EUCalc will enable the EU’s sustainability challenges to be addressed in a pragmatic and dynamic way without compromising on scientific rigour. It aims to become a widely used democratic tool for policy and decision making. EUCalc will close a critical gap that has emerged - based on a scientifically robust modelling methodology - between actual climate-energy-system models and the increasing needs of decision makers for information at short notice. This aim will be underpinned by involving an extended number of decision-makers from policy and business as well as other societal stakeholders through expert consultations, a public call for evidence and the co-design of a Transition Pathways Explorer and a My Europe 2050 education tool.

Coordination and modelling