TRANSrisk Newsletter: Issue #1, November 2015

TRANSition Pathways and RISK Analysis

for Climate Change Mitigation and

Adaptation Strategies

Welcome to TRANSrisk

Issue #1 November 2015

TRANSrisk is an EU funded research project aiming to innovatively transform the way in which climate change policy pathways are developed.

TRANSrisk seeks to understand the costs, level of public acceptance, and the risks, uncertainties and co-effects associated with different mitigation pathways and low-carbon technologies.

In order to help policymakers manage uncertainties TRANSrisk will gather data via 15 case studies from the EU and other regions, and employ a variety of different models to explore scenarios and pathways.

TRANSrisk will also engage a wide range of stakeholders to help develop credible transition pathways, thus integrating quantitative and qualitative analysis in a unique and innovative way.

An initial meeting of the TRANSrisk partnership was successfully held in Brussels, on 23 - 24 September 2015.

At this 2-day event, 41 participants had the opportunity to meet in person, present overviews of their expectations for the project and discuss the challenges of the forthcoming tasks. Participants included partners’ representatives and European Commission officers.

TRANSrisk Objectives

Create an innovative assessment framework for analysing the risks and uncertainties, as well as costs and benefits, of low carbon transition pathways;
Engage with policy makers to embed consideration of risk and uncertainty at the heart of policy design;
Establish an assessment framework that brings together quantitative models and qualitative approaches, focusing on participatory consultations with stakeholders as a link between the approaches;
Design decision support tools to help policymakers better understand uncertainties and risks, therefore supporting robust policy design.

TRANSrisk Expected Results

Enhanced support for technological, institutional and socio-economic “climate-action” innovation;
Reduced uncertainties in the assessment of costs, benefits and economic values of mitigation options;
Support for the EU and global climate policy goals;
Scientific underpinning for implementation of the EU’s “Roadmap for moving to a low - carbon economy in 2050”;
A contribution to major international scientific assessments (e.g. IPCC).

Who we are...

Science Technology Policy Research, University of Sussex	SPRU
Basque Centre for Climate Change	BC3
Cambridge Econometrics	CE
Energy Research Centre of the Netherlands	ECN
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (funded by Swiss Gov’t)	ETH Zurich
Institute for Structural Research	IBS
Joint Implementation Network	JIN
National Technical University of Athens	NTUA
Stockholm Environment Institute	SEI
University of Graz	UniGraz
University of Piraeus Research Centre	UPRC
Pontifical Catholic University of Chile	CLAPESUC