Climate Change Solutions Simulator
En-ROADS is a transparent, freely-available policy simulation model that provides policymakers, educators, businesses, the media, and the public with the ability to explore, for themselves, the likely consequences of energy, economic growth, land use, and other policies and uncertainties, with the goal of improving their understanding. The simulation, developed by Climate Interactive, Ventana Systems, and MIT Sloan, runs on an ordinary laptop in a fraction of a second, is available online, offers an intuitive interface, has been carefully grounded in the best available science, and has been calibrated against a wide range of existing integrated assessment, climate and energy models.
A wide range of people have used En-ROADS, including members of the U.S. Congress, HSBC bank, the Hewlett Foundation, local community groups, the UN Secretary-General’s Office, university professors around the world, leading science educator Bill Nye, and many others.
En-ROADS is best used as part of one of our two facilitated group learning experiences: the En-ROADS Climate Workshop and the Climate Action Simulation.
All are welcome and encouraged to join our free online trainings to learn more about the science behind the simulator and event facilitation.
Watch a three minute demonstration of its operation and features below.
Ways to Use En-ROADS
By yourself
Create a scenario and share it
Experiment with the simulator and create your climate vision in En-ROADS.
In a workshop
The En-ROADS Climate Workshop
A non-role-playing workshop experience for groups to learn about climate solutions.
In a game
Climate Action Simulation
A highly interactive, role-playing game using En-ROADS in a model-UN-like summit.
Looking for a take-home activity for your students? Be sure to explore the En-ROADS student assignment.
Have you run an En-ROADS Event? Please register your event here. Registering your event allows us to keep track of who is running the game around the world.
Register your En-ROADS Event
En-ROADS RESOURCES
- The En-ROADS Simulator
The simulator itself!
- One-page Guide to the Control Panel
A basic overview to the main sliders in En-ROADS.
- The En-ROADS Training Plan
Join our interactive training plan if you are interested in learning how to facilitate the workshop and/or game.
- The En-ROADS User Guide
Descriptions and explanations of the model dynamics and insights, along with FAQs.
- The En-ROADS Climate Workshop
With a group, use En-ROADS to explore the impacts of climate solutions in real-time.
- En-ROADS Student Assignment
Resources to help educators use En-ROADS successfully in their classroom.
- The Climate Action Simulation
Lead an engaging role-playing game using En-ROADS where participants are oil executives, activists, heads of state, and others.
- The En-ROADS Reference Guide
Documentation of the model structure and assumptions behind En-ROADS.
Ways to Share En-ROADS
En-ROADS games and workshops have been delivered around the world. Here’s how you can get involved:
Simulator Science
En-ROADS is a System Dynamics model with origins in the MIT PhD theses of Dr. John Sterman and Dr. Tom Fiddaman. Recent breakthroughs have enabled the model to be made user friendly and accessible to wide audiences. The modeling team at Climate Interactive, led by Dr. Lori Siegel, have taken on the more recent model developments in continued collaboration with MIT Sloan’s John Sterman, Ventana System’s Tom Fiddaman, and many others.
En-ROADS is a global model that focuses on how changes in the energy, economic, and public policy systems could affect greenhouse gas emissions and climate outcomes. Behind the simulator is an extensive study of the literature of important factors such as delay times, progress ratios, price sensitivities, historic growth of energy sources, and energy efficiency potential. En-ROADS stands for Energy Rapid Overview and Decision-Support.
En-ROADS is a high-order, non-linear differential equation model built originally and contemporaneously in Vensim software. We then translated En-ROADS into WebAssembly via a tool we built with Todd Fincannon called SDEverywhere so that it can run in a web browser. When a user moves a slider, the En-ROADS application calculates the results from ~14,000 equations, with a time step of ~45 days, over 110 years from 1990 to 2100, in 60 milliseconds.
If you like En-ROADS, you may appreciate exploring the larger, more disaggregated models that our modeling team used to test and calibrate our simulator. One group of models is the Energy Modeling Forum out of Stanford University, which includes 18 energy-economy and integrated assessment models.
All assumptions, equations, and parameters are documented in the En-ROADS Reference Guide (380 pages).
A brief overview of the insights from academic literature supporting the need for En-ROADS is here.
Below, you can see the main En-ROADS interface.
En-ROADS in the Media
Quotes on En-ROADS
