You will have a chance to work with the En-ROADS simulation model (developed by ClimateInteractive and MIT Sloan Sustainability Initiative) to create a set of policies that can mitigate global warming to the internationally agreed target of less than 2°C (3.6°F). You will be assigned to one level of government: Local (City/County), State, or Federal. Some policies may make sense at one level of government but not another for legal or policy reasons. You will have to justify your choice of policy at that level of government in the assignment. (IMPORTANT: Check which level of government you have been assigned to by looking at the name of your Discussion Group!) This is the first of the 5 assignment in our Climate Action Policy Project to build a portfolio of policies from different levels of government and targeting different sectors using different policy tools.
Step 1: Access En-ROADS online at climateinteractive.org (https://www.climateinteractive.org/tools/en-roads/). Review these materials to help you understand how to use this model: Quick Guide to En-ROADS control panel, graphs and policy levers Download Quick Guide to En-ROADS control panel, graphs and policy levers Watch the 2.5-minute introductory video to the En-ROADS simulator. Captions on Youtube.(https://youtu.be/x9xRwhFNMyc) tep
2: Plan to post by Thursday Week 6 (8 points). For this stage, use the simple policy sliders in the En-ROADS simulator (https://en-roads.climateinteractive.org/scenario.html?v=21.10.0.) to choose 1 action that your level of government has some legal authority to regulate (first look at classmate responses and pick something that no one else has done yet). Post the following information about your action:
A. Describe and embed screenshot of the action that you selected (use the embed image icon in the tool barImage Icon.png, do not use the “attach file” option): Sector/category (for example: “Energy/Renewables”) Magnitude of action (how far you moved the lever, for example: “subsidized”) Magnitude of climate impact (change in projected temp, for example, “reduced to +4.0C”)
B. Describe policy justifications for your choice: The factual basis for why this action reduces GHG emissions The source of legal power for this action by your level of government (IMPORTANT: Check which level of government you have been assigned to by looking at the name of your Discussion Group!) The cultural or values basis for taking this action C. Anticipate the unintended impacts of taking this action: Co-benefits (for example, reduces other types of pollution, enhances environmental justice) Negative impacts (for example, poor disproportionately bear costs, etc.)
