En-ROADS is a global climate simulator that allows users to explore the impact that dozens of policies—such as electrifying transport, pricing carbon, and improving agricultural practices—have on hundreds of factors like energy prices, temperature, air quality, and sea level rise.

Developed by Climate Interactive, the MIT Sloan Sustainability Initiative, and Ventana Systems, En-ROADS is a system dynamics model carefully grounded in the best available science, and has been calibrated against a wide range of existing integrated assessment, climate, and energy models. En-ROADS runs on an ordinary laptop in a fraction of a second, is freely available online, offers an intuitive user-friendly interface, and is available in over a dozen languages.

En-ROADS helps people make connections between things they care about and the possibilities available to help ensure a resilient future. Users can quickly see the long-term effects of the global climate policies and actions they imagine. The goal? To break through the noise and equip elected officials, business leaders, and others with the knowledge they need to implement equitable and high-leverage climate solutions. You can learn more about the science behind the simulator here.

Experiencing En-ROADS changes how people think about climate change and how they feel about it at a visceral level. In government offices around the world, in classrooms and corporate boardrooms, we have seen how testing alternate scenarios motivates users to step up and take action. More than 200,000 people in 139 countries—including more than 130 members of the US Congress—have taken the time to use En-ROADS. Beyond the numbers, peer-reviewed studies have demonstrated that those who engage with En-ROADS are empowered to take action, with a strengthened connection and improved understanding of climate issues.

More information and link to the simulator at https://www.climateinteractive.org/en-roads/

• With a climate cataclysm looming, the pace and scale of current climate
  action plans are wholly insufficient to effectively tackle climate change.
  Increasingly frequent and intense extreme weather events are already
  impacting every region on Earth. Rising temperatures will escalate these
  hazards further, posing grave risks.
• The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) emphasizes
  that deep, rapid and sustained reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG)
  emissions are essential in all sectors, beginning now and continuing
  throughout this decade. To limit global warming to 1.5°C above preindustrial levels, emissions must already be decreasing and need to be
  cut by almost half by 2030, just seven years away.
• Urgent and transformative action is crucial, going beyond mere plans
  and promises. It requires raising ambition, covering entire economies and
  moving towards climate-resilient development, while outlining a clear
  path to achieve net-zero emissions. Time is running out, and immediate
  measures are necessary to avoid catastrophic consequences and secure
  a sustainable future for generations to come.

Read and download the full report here

According to the report, the impacts of the climate crisis, the war in Ukraine, a weak global economy, and the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have revealed weaknesses and hindered progress towards the Goals. The report further warns that while lack of progress is universal, it is the world’s poorest and most vulnerable who are experiencing the worst effects of these unprecedented global challenges. It also points out areas that need urgent action to rescue the SDGs and deliver meaningful progress for people and the planet by 2030.

See our summary of progress towards SDG13: Climate Action

Download the full report here

Sports organizations can display climate leadership by engaging together in the climate neutrality journey. They can achieve this by taking responsibility for their climate footprint, which in turn will incentivize climate action beyond the sports sector, and therefore help global ambition step-up in the face of the threat posed by climate change.

Uniting behind a set of principles, sports organizations and their communities have created an initiative by collaborating in order to position their sector on the path of the low carbon economy that global leaders agreed on in Paris: Sports for Climate Action

Sports for Climate Action Objectives

Sports for Climate Action works towards two overarching goals:

1. Achieving a clear trajectory for the global sports community to combat climate change, through commitments and partnerships according to verified standards, including measuring, reducing, and reporting greenhouse gas emissions, in line with the well below 2 degree scenario enshrined in the Paris Agreement;
2. Using sports as a unifying tool to federate and create solidarity among global citizens for climate action.

Sports for Climate Action Principles

The Sports for Climate Action Initiative will provide sports organizations with a forum where participants can pursue climate action in a consistent and mutually supportive fashion by learning from each other, disseminating good practices, lessons learned, developing new tools, and collaborating on areas of mutual interest.

Participants in the Sports for Climate Action Initiative will commit to adhere to a set of five principles and incorporate them into strategies, policies and procedures, and mainstream them within the sports community, thus setting the stage for a wider dissemination of the message and long-term success.

Organizations are invited to sign up to the Sports for Climate Action principles, regardless of their current stage in their environmental endeavors and work collaboratively to identify and spotlight climate solutions.

UN Climate change will deploy its existing Global Climate Action platforms such as NAZCA, Climate Neutral Now, and Momentum for Change initiatives to inspire action, track progress and/or highlight success and provide recognition. UN Climate Change will also facilitate and coordinate the initiative within its resources and mandates.

Sports for Climate Action Targets

Sports for Climate Action signatories have established climate action in the agenda of the sports industry and are providing a signal for the future of sports, with global signatories joining every day. These commitments must be met with strategies to reduce GHG emissions, backed by immediate concrete actions and transparency of their progress against set targets. Many signatories have already started this process by mapping out their own GHG emissions, setting concrete goals and net-zero targets, and communicating and advocating for 1.5°C ambition on a global scale.

As part of this commitment, and three years after the launch of Sports for Climate Action framework, signatories are now requested to commit to achieving specific climate goals of halving emissions by 2030 and aiming to achieve net-zero by 2040.

These targets and timelines aim to position sports as an industry that sets the pace for climate action. Both goals have been informed by best practice targets. Sport is well placed to respond to the scientific consensus that deep and fast emission reductions are required to ensure a safer future. While focus will be on the 2030 goal, UN Climate Change will work with signatories to determine best course of action for achieving net zero by 2040, always guided by credible, best practice guidance.

More Information

https://unfccc.int/climate-action/sectoral-engagement/sports-for-climate-action

A summary for policymakers  of the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was published on 20 March and in 36 pages summarises the current state of knowledge of climate change, its widespread impacts and risks, and climate change mitigation and adaptation.

Perhaps the most important conclusions are:

Global GHG emissions in 2030 implied by nationally determined contributions (NDCs) announced by October 2021 make it likely that warming will exceed 1.5°C during the 21st century and make it harder to limit warming below 2°C.

Current global financial flows for adaptation are insufficient for, and constrain implementation of, adaptation options, especially in developing countries.

The choices and actions implemented in this decade will have impacts now and for thousands of years.

Near-term actions involve high up-front investments and potentially disruptive changes that can be lessened by a range of enabling policies.

The report integrates the main findings of the complete AR6 report, due to be published soon, which recognizes the interdependence of:

• climate, ecosystems and biodiversity, and human societies;
• the value of diverse forms of knowledge;
• and the close linkages between climate change adaptation, mitigation, ecosystem health, human well-being and sustainable development.

Main conclusions

Observed Warming and its Causes

Human activities, principally through emissions of greenhouse gases, have unequivocally caused global warming, with global surface temperature reaching 1.1°C above 1850–1900 in 2011–2020. Global greenhouse gas emissions have continued to increase, with unequal historical and ongoing contributions arising from unsustainable energy use, land use and land-use change, lifestyles and patterns of consumption and production across regions, between and within countries, and among individuals.

Observed Changes and Impacts

Widespread and rapid changes in the atmosphere, ocean, cryosphere and biosphere have occurred. Human-caused climate change is already affecting many weather and climate extremes in every region across the globe. This has led to widespread adverse impacts and related losses and damages to nature and people. Vulnerable communities who have historically contributed the least to current climate change are disproportionately affected.

Current Progress in Adaptation and Gaps and Challenges

Adaptation planning and implementation has progressed across all sectors and regions, with documented benefits and varying effectiveness. Despite progress, adaptation gaps exist, and will continue to grow at current rates of implementation. Hard and soft limits to adaptation have been reached in some ecosystems and regions. Maladaptation is happening in some sectors and regions. Current global financial flows for adaptation are insufficient for, and constrain implementation of, adaptation options, especially in developing countries.

Current Mitigation Progress, Gaps and Challenges

Policies and laws addressing mitigation have consistently expanded since AR5. Global GHG emissions in 2030 implied by nationally determined contributions (NDCs) announced by October 2021 make it likely that warming will exceed 1.5°C during the 21st century and make it harder to limit warming below 2°C. There are gaps between projected emissions from implemented policies and those from NDCs and finance flows fall short of the levels needed to meet climate goals across all sectors and regions.

Future Climate Change

Continued greenhouse gas emissions will lead to increasing global warming, with the best estimate of reaching 1.5°C in the near term. Every increment of global warming will intensify multiple and concurrent hazards. Deep, rapid, and sustained reductions in greenhouse gas emissions would lead to a discernible slowdown in global warming within around two decades, and also to discernible changes in atmospheric composition within a few years.

Climate Change Impacts and Climate-Related Risks

For any given future warming level, many climate-related risks are higher than assessed in AR5, and projected long-term impacts are up to multiple times higher than currently observed. Risks and projected adverse impacts and related losses and damages from climate change escalate with every increment of global warming. Climatic and non-climatic risks will increasingly interact, creating compound and cascading risks that are more complex and difficult to manage.

Likelihood and Risks of Unavoidable, Irreversible or Abrupt Changes

Some future changes are unavoidable and/or irreversible but can be limited by deep, rapid and sustained global greenhouse gas emissions reduction. The likelihood of abrupt and/or irreversible changes increases with higher global warming levels. Similarly, the probability of low-likelihood outcomes associated with potentially very large adverse impacts increases with higher global warming levels.

Adaptation Options and their Limits in a Warmer World

Adaptation options that are feasible and effective today will become constrained and less effective with increasing global warming. With increasing global warming, losses and damages will increase and additional human and natural systems will reach adaptation limits. Maladaptation can be avoided by flexible, multi-sectoral, inclusive, long-term planning and implementation of adaptation actions, with co-benefits to many sectors and systems.

Carbon Budgets and Net Zero Emissions

Limiting human-caused global warming requires net zero CO2 emissions. Cumulative carbon emissions until the time of reaching net-zero CO2 emissions and the level of greenhouse gas emission reductions this decade largely determine whether warming can be limited to 1.5°C or 2°C. Projected CO2 emissions from existing fossil fuel infrastructure without additional abatement would exceed the remaining carbon budget for 1.5°C (50%).

Mitigation Pathways

All global modelled pathways that limit warming to 1.5°C (>50%) with no or limited overshoot, and those that limit warming to 2°C (>67%), involve rapid and deep and, in most cases, immediate greenhouse gas emissions reductions in all sectors this decade. Global net zero CO2 emissions are reached for these pathway categories, in the early 2050s and around the early 2070s, respectively.

Overshoot: Exceeding a Warming Level and Returning

If warming exceeds a specified level such as 1.5°C, it could gradually be reduced again by achieving and sustaining net negative global CO2 emissions. This would require additional deployment of carbon dioxide removal, compared to pathways without overshoot, leading to greater feasibility and sustainability concerns. Overshoot entails adverse impacts, some irreversible, and additional risks for human and natural systems, all growing with the magnitude and duration of overshoot.

Urgency of Near-Term Integrated Climate Action

Climate change is a threat to human well-being and planetary health. There is a rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a liveable and sustainable future for all. Climate resilient development integrates adaptation and mitigation to advance sustainable development for all, and is enabled by increased international cooperation including improved access to adequate financial resources, particularly for vulnerable regions, sectors and groups, and inclusive governance and coordinated policies. The choices and actions implemented in this decade will have impacts now and for thousands of years.

The Benefits of Near-Term Action

Deep, rapid and sustained mitigation and accelerated implementation of adaptation actions in this decade would reduce projected losses and damages for humans and ecosystems, and deliver many co-benefits, especially for air quality and health. Delayed mitigation and adaptation action would lock-in high-emissions infrastructure, raise risks of stranded assets and cost-escalation, reduce feasibility, and increase losses and damages. Near-term actions involve high up-front investments and potentially disruptive changes that can be lessened by a range of enabling policies.

Mitigation and Adaptation Options across Systems

Rapid and far-reaching transitions across all sectors and systems are necessary to achieve deep and sustained emissions reductions and secure a liveable and sustainable future for all. These system transitions involve a significant upscaling of a wide portfolio of mitigation and adaptation options. Feasible, effective, and low-cost options for mitigation and adaptation are already available, with differences across systems and regions.

Synergies and Trade-Offs with Sustainable Development

Accelerated and equitable action in mitigating and adapting to climate change impacts is critical to sustainable development. Mitigation and adaptation actions have more synergies than trade-offs with Sustainable Development Goals. Synergies and trade-offs depend on context and scale of implementation.

Equity and Inclusion

Prioritising equity, climate justice, social justice, inclusion and just transition processes can enable adaptation and ambitious mitigation actions and climate resilient development. Adaptation outcomes are enhanced by increased support to regions and people with the highest vulnerability to climatic hazards. Integrating climate adaptation into social protection programs improves resilience. Many options are available for reducing emission-intensive consumption, including through behavioural and lifestyle changes, with co-benefits for societal well-being.

Governance and Policies

Effective climate action is enabled by political commitment, well-aligned multilevel governance, institutional frameworks, laws, policies and strategies and enhanced access to finance and technology. Clear goals, coordination across multiple policy domains, and inclusive governance processes facilitate effective climate action. Regulatory and economic instruments can support deep emissions reductions and climate resilience if scaled up and applied widely. Climate resilient development benefits from drawing on diverse knowledge.

Finance, Technology and International Cooperation

Finance, technology and international cooperation are critical enablers for accelerated climate action. If climate goals are to be achieved, both adaptation and mitigation financing would need to increase many-fold. There is sufficient global capital to close the global investment gaps but there are barriers to redirect capital to climate action. Enhancing technology innovation systems is key to accelerate the widespread adoption of technologies and practices. Enhancing international cooperation is possible through multiple channels.

There are tens of thousands of trained Climate Reality Leaders in almost every country in the world.

Climate Reality promotes environmental justice and climate justice for all, offers grants.

For more information see https://www.climaterealityproject.org/

The European Branch is based in Austria. More information at https://www.climaterealityeurope.org/

In the central region area there is a Climate Reality Society at the University of Warwick. See https://www.warwicksu.com/societies-sports/societies/27735/ for details.

More information can be found at

• https://sdgs.un.org/goals,
• https://www.undp.org/sustainable-development-goals and
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable_Development_Goals.

Educational resources can be found at https://worldslargestlesson.globalgoals.org/

Help on taking action to support the SDGs can be found at https://www.globalgoals.org/

The offer free resources, campaigns, themes and collections.

Scarlett Westbrook with her Doctorate of Science

Scarlett Westbrook is a climate justice activist and journalist born in Birmingham in 2004. Wikipedia says she is noted for her work in climate and education policy, and was the youngest regular policy writer in Parliamentary history.

She is a spokesperson and coordinator with the UK Student Climate Network, head of political engagement at Teach the Future, a prominent figure in the Fridays for Future movement and a spokesperson for Labour for a Green New Deal.

She has received a Doctorate of Science (honoris causa) by the University of London and says “it feels very surreal to have a ‘degree’ before starting my undergrad. I can’t put into words how grateful I am to the university for this honour.

“We live in a world that is undeniably terrifying, whether that is because of the climate crisis, structural poverty, inequality and so much more. Yet, instead of giving up in the face of such horrific realities, we keep going. We keep fighting in our own ways because if we don’t, who will?

“This radical hope is what drives me and so many others. Hope is a verb: we don’t just find it everywhere but we have to fight for it too. We have to uphold the things that inspire hope too; from something as simple as having a community, to a dream as complex as changing the world. We have to make hope by believing we deserve better and doing all we can to get that, in whatever form that takes.

“I have gathered quite a collection of “firsts” and “youngest-evers” in the climate and policy worlds. But I will be the first to tell you that none of it matters. The climate crisis may be driven by a select number of individuals who are overconsuming but it certainly won’t be solved by individuals. Only structural change will tackle it. We need transformative action from the grassroots up, and that won’t be led or secured by any one individual.

“I don’t just owe this to the people in my life but to every single person who has carried on in spite of the climate crisis to demand better, to fight for the world we deserve. I truly believe that change is not just a necessity but an inevitability that we can create together, starting with something as simple as dreaming.

The Times described her on 24 February 2023 as a British Greta Thunberg who has burst the Westminster bubble. She is trying to get a climate education bill passed in the Commons.

Her articles have appeared in the Independent, the Metro, gal-dem and i-D.

It was formed as one of the demands of students participating in the Student Strike for Climate in the spring of 2019.

It has its own website (covcan.uk) and will act with the support of UNA Coventry but have its own membership and independent steering committee.

More information about joining CovCAN here.