TRANSrisk is an EU-funded research project studying the risks and uncertainties within low carbon transition pathways, and how transitions can be implemented in ways that are technically, economically and sociably feasible. The project’s objective is to produce a new assessment framework, and an accompanying toolbox, for policy makers. The project started in 2015 and will run until autumn 2018.
TRANSrisk’s unique approach sees us combining economic computer models with input from people working in the area of study (’stakeholders’). Models provide a useful means of predicting the future impacts of decisions we take now, but factors such as political opinion and public acceptability are very difficult to predict via a purely numerical approach. TRANSrisk is using stakeholder input to feed our models, and is presenting the results back to stakeholders to see how this affects their views.
14 country case studies lie at the core of TRANSrisk’s work. Each case study is focusing on key economic sectors and low carbon technologies for the country in question. To fully understand the range of transition pathways our case studies encompass the globe: from Europe and North America to the fast growing economies of Asia, Africa and Latin America. Each case study is led by expert academics based in the study country.
The team behind TRANSrisk is a tight knit partnership of 12 leading universities and research institutions, based in the EU, Switzerland and Chile. The project is coordinated by SPRU (Science Policy Research Unit) at the University of Sussex in the UK.
Ultimately TRANSrisk’s outputs will help policy and decision makers implement more effective climate change policy, and improve their understanding of the costs, benefits, risks and uncertainties of rolling out low carbon technologies. Our research journey will also improve scientific understanding of how low carbon transition pathways can be implemented across the diverse economies of the world.
