Drew Jones’ facilitation of the World Energy Simulation with the Leadership North Carolina Class XXIII engaged leaders from across sectors in an interactive, thought-provoking and solutions-focused discussion about strategies and policies to address global climate change. I think we all walked away with a better understanding of the complex energy and climate system and hope in our collective ability to drive a more sustainable future.
-Jessica Thomas, Director, Business Sustainability Collaborative
The team at Climate Interactive have created a powerful educational tool in their En-ROADS model. At C2ES, we have experimented with the simulation both internally and with our Business Environmental Leadership Council, and the results have been both informative and illuminating. It is easy to make assumptions about the contribution that certain sectors, actions or technologies can make to reduce global GHG concentrations – and this simulation demonstrates in real-time how one’s assumptions and mental models are not always correct. 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.
-Eileen Claussen, President, Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES)
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. And if we can come up with plausible scenarios, it could influence decision-makers and mobilize people.
-Alfredo Sirkis, Brazilian Congressman
From a personal perspective, I found the session very useful and the capability of the model, its speed and ease of use are definitely beneficial to get the key interdependencies and challenges seen in real time and so help to stimulate discussion and debate within a group (especially with a presenter like Drew to chair proceedings). This type of model is being used more and more by policymakers to get useful stakeholder engagement on the future direction of the energy system as, for example, the DECC Pathways calculator attempts for the UK.
-Gareth Davies, Pöyry Energy Consulting
Until your course this week, I’d pretty much put the environment out of mind. But with your system dynamics model, I feel that I understand the levers in a deeper way and more structured so that I could explain it to others. That, and seeing the progress we’re making in developing nano and energy technologies that could help to eventually reverse the damage we’ve done, I’m feeling pragmatically optimistic.
-Bruce Pon, Management Consultant and MIT Business Dynamics student