Societal Transformations in Models for Energy and Climate Policy: The Ambitious Next Step

Evelina Trutnevyte; Léon F. Hirt; Nico Bauer; Aleh Cherp; Adam Hawkes; Oreane Y. Edelenbosch; Simona Pedde; Detlef P. van Vuuren

doi:10.1016/j.oneear.2019.12.002

Societal Transformations in Models for Energy and Climate Policy: The Ambitious Next Step

Evelina Trutnevyte^*
, Léon F. Hirt
, Nico Bauer
, Aleh Cherp
, Adam Hawkes
, Oreane Y. Edelenbosch
, Simona Pedde
, Detlef P. van Vuuren

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Review article › peer-review

Abstract

Whether and how long-term energy and climate targets can be reached depend on a range of interlinked factors: technology, economy, environment, policy, and society at large. Integrated assessment models of climate change or energy-system models have limited representations of societal transformations, such as behavior of various actors, transformation dynamics in time, and heterogeneity across and within societies. After reviewing the state of the art, we propose a research agenda to guide experiments to integrate more insights from social sciences into models: (1) map and assess societal assumptions in existing models, (2) conduct empirical research on generalizable and quantifiable patterns to be integrated into models, and (3) build and extensively validate modified or new models. Our proposed agenda offers three benefits: interdisciplinary learning between modelers and social scientists, improved models with a more complete representation of multifaceted reality, and identification of new and more effective solutions to energy and climate challenges.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	423-433
Number of pages	11
Journal	One Earth
Volume	1
Issue number	4
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2019.12.002
Publication status	Published - 20 Dec 2019

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The authors thank the participants of the Denver Scenario Forum 2019 for fruitful discussions. This work received funding from the Institute for Environmental Sciences at the University of Geneva and from the NAVIGATE project of the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement 821124. E.T. conceptualized the overall manuscript with expertise and feedback from all authors. E.T. wrote the original draft, and N.B. A.C. A.H. O.Y.E. and S.P. wrote a box or subsection each. All authors reviewed, edited, and approved the manuscript.

Funding Information:
The authors thank the participants of the Denver Scenario Forum 2019 for fruitful discussions. This work received funding from the Institute for Environmental Sciences at the University of Geneva and from the NAVIGATE project of the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement 821124 .

Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 The Authors

Funding

The authors thank the participants of the Denver Scenario Forum 2019 for fruitful discussions. This work received funding from the Institute for Environmental Sciences at the University of Geneva and from the NAVIGATE project of the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement 821124. E.T. conceptualized the overall manuscript with expertise and feedback from all authors. E.T. wrote the original draft, and N.B. A.C. A.H. O.Y.E. and S.P. wrote a box or subsection each. All authors reviewed, edited, and approved the manuscript. The authors thank the participants of the Denver Scenario Forum 2019 for fruitful discussions. This work received funding from the Institute for Environmental Sciences at the University of Geneva and from the NAVIGATE project of the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement 821124 .

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 13 Climate Action

Keywords

climate change
energy system models
integrated assessment models
social sciences and humanities
societal transformations

Access to Document

10.1016/j.oneear.2019.12.002Licence: CC BY-NC-ND

PIIS2590332219302246Final published version, 1.59 MBLicence: CC BY-NC-ND

Cite this

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title = "Societal Transformations in Models for Energy and Climate Policy: The Ambitious Next Step",

abstract = "Whether and how long-term energy and climate targets can be reached depend on a range of interlinked factors: technology, economy, environment, policy, and society at large. Integrated assessment models of climate change or energy-system models have limited representations of societal transformations, such as behavior of various actors, transformation dynamics in time, and heterogeneity across and within societies. After reviewing the state of the art, we propose a research agenda to guide experiments to integrate more insights from social sciences into models: (1) map and assess societal assumptions in existing models, (2) conduct empirical research on generalizable and quantifiable patterns to be integrated into models, and (3) build and extensively validate modified or new models. Our proposed agenda offers three benefits: interdisciplinary learning between modelers and social scientists, improved models with a more complete representation of multifaceted reality, and identification of new and more effective solutions to energy and climate challenges.",

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note = "Funding Information: The authors thank the participants of the Denver Scenario Forum 2019 for fruitful discussions. This work received funding from the Institute for Environmental Sciences at the University of Geneva and from the NAVIGATE project of the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement 821124. E.T. conceptualized the overall manuscript with expertise and feedback from all authors. E.T. wrote the original draft, and N.B. A.C. A.H. O.Y.E. and S.P. wrote a box or subsection each. All authors reviewed, edited, and approved the manuscript. Funding Information: The authors thank the participants of the Denver Scenario Forum 2019 for fruitful discussions. This work received funding from the Institute for Environmental Sciences at the University of Geneva and from the NAVIGATE project of the European Union{\textquoteright}s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement 821124 . Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2019 The Authors",

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AU - Cherp, Aleh

AU - Hawkes, Adam

AU - Edelenbosch, Oreane Y.

AU - Pedde, Simona

AU - van Vuuren, Detlef P.

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Societal Transformations in Models for Energy and Climate Policy: The Ambitious Next Step

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

UN SDGs

Keywords

Access to Document

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