The En-ROADS Climate Solutions Simulator
En-ROADS is a freely-available online simulator that provides policymakers, educators, businesses, the media, and the public with the ability to test and explore cross-sector climate solutions.
Explore the En-ROADS Simulator ❯What is En-ROADS?
En-ROADS is a global climate simulator that allows users to explore the impact of roughly 30 policies—such as electrifying transport, pricing carbon, and improving agricultural practices—on hundreds of factors like energy prices, temperature, air quality, and sea level rise.
Developed by Climate Interactive, the MIT Sloan Sustainability Initiative, and Ventana Systems, En-ROADS is a system dynamics model carefully grounded in the best available science, and has been calibrated against a wide range of existing integrated assessment, climate, and energy models. En-ROADS runs on an ordinary laptop in a fraction of a second, is freely available online, offers an intuitive user-friendly interface, and is available in over a dozen languages.
En-ROADS helps people make connections between things they care about and the possibilities available to help ensure a resilient future. Users can quickly see the long-term effects of the global climate policies and actions they imagine. The goal? To break through the noise and equip elected officials, business leaders, and others with the knowledge they need to implement equitable and high-leverage climate solutions. You can learn more about the science behind the simulator here.
How is En-ROADS used?
Experiencing En-ROADS changes how people think about climate change and how they feel about it at a visceral level. In government offices around the world, in classrooms and corporate boardrooms, we have seen how testing alternate scenarios motivates users to step up and take action. More than 300,000 people in 85 countries—including more than 130 members of the US Congress—have taken the time to use En-ROADS. Beyond the numbers, peer-reviewed studies have demonstrated that those who engage with En-ROADS are empowered to take action, with a strengthened connection and improved understanding of climate issues.
En-ROADS can be used individually online, but it is most often used as part of a facilitated group learning experiences: the En-ROADS Climate Workshop, the Climate Action Simulation game, or the En-ROADS Guided Assignment. These interactive events help participants gain key insights from the simulator, adopt new perspectives, and build grounded hope in a fun and engaging format. These experiences can be offered either in-person or via online platforms, and all materials are free.
We encourage you to join our online trainings to learn more about En-ROADS, its related experiences, and more. Our trainings cover: climate and energy system dynamics, interdisciplinary climate solutions, advanced facilitation tips, and more.
Watch a three minute demonstration of its operation and features below.
Who leads En-ROADS events?
Anyone can lead En-ROADS events
A wide range of people have led En-ROADS events, including several national government leaders, a president of a major philanthropic foundation, chief sustainability officers, university professors, citizen leaders, and educators the world over. Facilitators from diverse backgrounds bring En-ROADS insights to their community through our interactive group experiences.
Anyone with enough interest can learn how to run an En-ROADS event for their desired audience.
Our event resources are:
- Free and open-access
- Adaptable to a wide range of audiences
- Complemented by our training program and user guides
- Offered in a variety of languages
- Accompanied by first-rate user support through our online help desk and comprehensive FAQ database
En-ROADS Climate Ambassadors
The En-ROADS Climate Ambassador Program is a unique leadership opportunity intended for highly-motivated facilitators who run En-ROADS events. En-ROADS Climate Ambassadors are committed to mastering our tools and spreading data-driven climate insights across the globe. Our team works closely with our Ambassadors to grow our network, run international events, and deliver crucial insights to decision-makers using the En-ROADS Simulator. Joining the Ambassador program is free, and applications are open to any member of the public who has completed the Mastering En-ROADS Trainings program.
If you are interested in having an Ambassador run an event for your group, you can explore our global network and connect with our Ambassadors.
Our facilitators and En-ROADS Climate Ambassadors are running events all around the world. Each marker shows an En-ROADS workshop or game that has been held. Zoom in on the map and click on markers to see more details about each unique event. If you’ve run an En-ROADS event, be sure to register it to ensure we can put it on the map too!
4477 Events
97 countries
1398 facilitators
125004 participants
En-ROADS RESOURCES
The En-ROADS User Guide
A comprehensive online guide that provides background on the dynamics of En-ROADS, tips for using the simulator, general descriptions, real-world examples, slider settings, and model structure notes for the different sliders in En-ROADS.
Mastering En-ROADS Training Program
This free 8-week program will advance your understanding of both the En-ROADS Simulator and its complementary learning experiences. The course will explore the dynamics driving our climate and energy system, interdisciplinary climate solutions, advanced facilitation tips, themes of equity and justice, event planning, and more.
En-ROADS Videos
However you are using En-ROADS, you can improve your understanding of the model’s dynamics by exploring some of our En-ROADS video library. Check out these videos to explore an array of topics — from deep dives on the science driving specific dynamics of the model, to real-life examples of people leading our game and workshop.
En-ROADS in the Media
Looking for communications material to help share En-ROADS? Be sure to explore our communications kit.
En-ROADS Testimonials
“En-ROADS is quite simply a climate crisis game-changer for policymakers and people across the country. Everyone is hearing more and more about the science, but sometimes it takes a demonstration tool like En-ROADS for people to see first-hand that everyone of us needs to be on a war footing and mobilize to fight this crisis head-on… En-ROADS is the ultimate conversation starter. ”
“This MIT/Climate Interactive simulator is a terrific, fantastic tool – absolutely wonderful. What I like: it is honest, shows the interesting interplay between policies, and is a bugle call about how aggressive we need to be.”
“En-ROADS is useful as a way to influence government, business, and public opinion to think, “Yes, it is possible to keep greenhouse gas concentrations below 450 ppm and temperature increase below two degrees.”
“En-ROADS teaches us that while it is still possible to avoid dangerous climate change, there are indeed no silver bullets to reach this goal, and we have our work cut out for us.”