Shift towards a low-carbon society
The EU-funded COMPLEX (Knowledge based climate mitigation systems for a low carbon economy) project developed new modelling tools for managing step-change dynamics to foster a low-carbon society. Working across a wide range of spatio-temporal scales, it integrated the knowledge of many stakeholder communities, for example in respect to land-use change driven by carbon-related technologies. Helping policymakers facilitate change without compromising cultural and natural life-support systems, the project team explored new energy technologies and methods of using landscapes and new policy instruments. Through a range of research activities, COMPLEX explored the relationship between culture, models, human behaviour, space-time scales and carbon economics. Researchers conducted case studies from Italy, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden based on models of climate change and carbon emissions. They developed a suite of modelling tools and decision-support systems for helping manage the transition to a low-carbon economy by 2050. Other problem areas studied include energy, agriculture, forestry and infrastructure. Project partners explored acceptance, implementation and realisation of climate mitigation policies. This was achieved at the landscape scale from the perspectives of those key actors and communities most important for their implementation. The consortium also supported the transition of Sweden’s Stockholm-Malar region to a low-carbon society by analysing strategic societal choices and their consequences. This included designing a toolkit for analysing emerging land-use patterns, economic development and impact of policy instruments. The toolkit also analyses short- and long-term processes that connect scientific support to decision-making at various levels. COMPLEX helped uncover the path to a low-carbon society under varying climate scenarios and changes in the world situation. The results help inform national and supranational policy and support communities across Europe seeking to make the transition to a low-carbon economy.
Keywords
Low-carbon society, low-carbon economy, step-change dynamics, COMPLEX, land-use
