C-ROADS provides "spirited moment" to Rio Climate Challenge prep

April 26, 2012 by Ellie Johnston

Travis Franck, Senior Scientist and Policy Analyst here at Climate Interactive, recently returned from Recife, Brazil, where he worked with Brazilian congressional representatives and international leaders in climate policy to shape what will be Brazil’s crowning climate change event around the Rio+20 Earth Summit this June. The Rio Climate Challenge aims to demonstrate that it is possible to have an international agreement that can keep CO2 concentrations under 450ppm. Climate Interactive has been showing to people (with our C-ROADS simulation) what global action would be required to put the world on a 2C-Pathway, and we are excited that others are committed to continuing to bring this message to political leaders.

The Rio Climate Challenge (RCC) is being convened by the Brazilian congress.  It will be an additional event during the Rio+20 conference focused on a climate change, which is not included in the main UN meeting. The RCC will bring together past and present political leaders, researchers, and economic experts from around the world to represent their nations. These delegates will try out different scenarios and simulate policy outcomes to find ways that countries could agree to address climate change at the UNFCCC. The outcomes of this and future meetings will be shared at future UN climate change negotiations, the next of which will be held in Doha, Qatar later this year.

Rio Climate Challenge prep meeting Travis attended the preparatory meeting for the RCC recently where his demonstration of C-ROADS was noted as a “spirited moment” that generated “excitation and curiosity.” C-ROADS enables people to try out and understand the different pathways we can take to addressing climate change. We are excited to see C-ROADS put to use in another “war game” setting during the RCC where people can talk about the simulation’s outcomes and apply it to their work in addressing climate change (read more about the war game held with the Center for New American Security).

If you will be heading to Rio+20 this June and can see how our tools would be helpful to your event or work there drop us a line.