Club Climate Europe
Integrated Assessment Models
CCE has access to a number of integrated assessment models, which can be variously soft-linked and hard-linked while meeting the needs of the clients.
Climate change, its mitigation and adaptation processes, green energy transition and enhanced environmental protection requires comprehensive analysis with application of statistical, econometrical, mathematical models and AI based methods, applied on macro and micro level. GCI-CCE has access to certain climate analysis methods, including most sophisticated Integrated Assessment Models (IAMs), which are comprehensive tools designed to provide policy-relevant insights into global environmental change and sustainable development issues. They achieve this by quantitatively describing critical processes within both human and earth systems, and how they interact. IAMs integrate information from diverse scientific disciplines, allowing them to offer valuable decision-making information, even in the face of significant uncertainties. Some of the climate analytics accessed by the Club include:
Climate Canvas Methodology (developed by Climate Canvas, USA and Montenegro)
The Climate Canvas Methodology and Climate Canvas Energy Efficiency Framework, co-authored by Arun Hsu and Vladan Raznatovic, constitute the integral elements of GCI-CCE possible innovative applications for Environmental and Social Governance, for defining the climate footprints of the companies. The Climate Canvas Methodology, a dynamic tool in progress, is a crucial facet of the Club’s capacities, offering a powerful means for businesses, particularly small and medium enterprises (SMEs), to develop effective climate change mitigation and adaptation plans. Inspired by the simplicity of the Business Model Canvas, the Climate Canvas provides a one-page template with nine building blocks, offering a clear roadmap for businesses to address climate change threats, assess risks, and implement mitigation measures.
The strength of the Climate Canvas lies in its simplicity, empowering SMEs to take effective climate action and derive financial benefits. It serves as a valuable tool for businesses to lower energy costs, improve efficiencies, enhance market reputation, and launch climate-friendly products. The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) through the OpenAI Chat GPT API enhances the Climate Canvas web application, allowing users to generate initial inputs easily and providing flexibility in multiple languages.
Moreover, the Climate Canvas Energy Efficiency Framework complements the methodology by integrating into EU-prescribed audit procedures for SMEs, promoting wider staff participation, supply chain efficiency, and implementation of energy efficiency recommendations. Together, these tools exemplify Club Climate Europe’s dedication to addressing climate challenges through innovative, interconnected, and adaptable modeling practices. The AI-assisted Climate Canvas represents a transformative force in international development, democratizing the climate change mitigation and adaptation process for SMEs and contributing to a more inclusive and sustainable approach to addressing climate challenges worldwide.
AD-MERGE and ETEM models (developed by GERAD HEC Montreal)
The AD-MERGE model, developed at GERAD research team is an advanced integrated assessment framework that includes a diverse set of modules to evaluate the interplay between climate policy, technological innovation, and economic development. The model features a hybrid structure that combines bottom-up technology details with top-down economic perspectives. At its core, AD-MERGE integrates a macroeconomic module that accounts for economic growth and the distribution of income, an energy module that details technology-specific characteristics within the energy sector, and a climate module that simulates climate dynamics and impacts. These are connected through a damage module that assesses economic costs associated with climate change.
Incorporating endogenous technological learning, AD-MERGE dynamically represents how technological advancements and learning curves affect the cost and adoption of new technologies over time. The model is geographically disaggregated, allowing for the analysis of region-specific adaptation strategies and mitigation technologies. Interconnected modules of the model where the macroeconomic outputs feed into the energy module, which in turn informs the climate module, creating a feedback loop through the damage module that influences the macroeconomic decisions. This integration enables the evaluation of a full range of policy scenarios, from the adoption of novel energy technologies to the implementation of carbon pricing and regulatory measures.
The ETEM model provides a comprehensive framework for assessing energy transition pathways, focusing on various technologies and energy sources, including hydrogen and renewable energy mixes. It’s designed to analyze and suggest optimal combinations of technologies to meet energy demands efficiently and sustainably. The model is particularly useful for detailed, region-specific planning, offering insights into optimal capacity expansions and technology deployments that align with economic and environmental objectives. For the Baltic region, ETEM can deliver targeted analyses, supporting the development of effective energy policies and strategies. In the ETEM model, parameters for energy transition and economics, particularly for hydrogen and renewable energy mixes, can include the capacity factor of various energy technologies, investment costs, operational and maintenance costs, and emission coefficients. For example, when modeling hydrogen, parameters might cover production methods (electrolysis, steam methane reforming with CCUS), storage options, and usage sectors (transportation, industrial processes). For renewables, parameters could involve solar irradiation levels, wind speeds, turbine efficiency, and land availability, all crucial for determining the potential output and integration of these energies into the grid.
TIAM (developed by UCL, UK)
The TIAM-UCL energy systems model is a global optimization model that investigates the decarbonisation of the global E3 (energy-environment-economy) system. TIAM-UCL allows us to better understand the global costs and benefits of many different decarbonisation options. It also allows to investigation of international climate change policies, such as Kyoto, and international issues such as aviation and shipping. TIAM-UCL has a bottom-up representation of the global energy system with all energy service demands and energy service flows in the reference year and with energy service demands projected into the future. A wide range of technologies are modelled that can be used to meet future demands to replace energy supply infrastructure that reaches the end of its life (or is phased out). Emissions of GHGs are counted and can be limited in each year. Moreover, the climate module of TIAM-UCL links emissions to global temperature rise. It is calibrated to the CMIP6 median equilibrium climate sensitivity but this is easily changed. The global temperature can be limited in each future time step, and the model will then optimize decarbonisation pathways of the global energy system to meet those temperature limits.
