There are many suggestions and various policies and actions to combat climate change and achieve decarbonization but how do we know which ones will be most beneficial?

For example, what will have the greater impact on emissions: increasing public transportation use or adapting the diet? How much will emissions reduce if we phase out coal by 2025? What impact will increasing heating and cooling efficiency have on total emissions?

In this course you will be introduced to a new tool, the EUCalc Pathways Explorer, which calculates the effects of different adaptations in behavior and changes in technology. This tool consolidates scientific data gathered from researchers world-wide.

The course allows students, engineers, policy and decision makers to learn to use the tool and thereby understand the impacts, trade-offs and synergies of climate change mitigation measures in different sectors and by different lifestyles.

Scenarios can be chosen for actions in transport, diet, consumption and homes, and in technology for buildings, energy, transport and manufacturing. Effects on greenhouses gas emissions, land-use, water scarcity, jobs, air pollution and costs can be seen for each setting. This way you can consider which actions and transitions are required to mitigate climate change effects in Europe and/or its separate Member States.

This course has been designed by TU Delft in collaboration with the partners of the EUCalc project.

What you’ll learn:

• explain the necessity of climate change mitigation activities;
• give examples of activities which can be taken to reach decarbonization pathways;
• explain how different decisions about climate change mitigation activities lead to different impacts and outcomes;
• explain that different sectors and lifestyles can contribute to decarbonization at different levels of ambition and understand the relative impact of such contributions;
• make informed decisions on decarbonization pathways and discuss the choices made with reference to their impacts.