Innovation pathways, strategies and policies for the low-carbon transition in Europe - INNOPATHS

The Paris Agreement substantially increased the need for countries and regions to understand the full economic, social and environmental implications of the deep decarbonisation to which the global community is now committed. The EU has long had decarbonisation ambitions, but there remains considerable uncertainty as to precisely how these ambitions will be achieved, or what the impacts of such achievement will be on the EU economy and society more generally.

The aim of INNOPATHS was to shade light on this uncertainty to the extent possible, to characterise and provide a quantification of the uncertainty which remains, and to describe in great detail a number of possible low-carbon pathways for the EU, together with the economic, social and environmental impacts. These pathways were co-designed with the aid of 23 stakeholders.

INNOPATHS suggested through this analysis how the benefits of these pathways, such as new industries, jobs and competitiveness, could be maximized, and how any negative impacts, such as those on low-income households, or on carbon-intensive sectors, could be mitigated. INNOPATHS communicated its insights through the normal scientific channels, and made substantial contributions to the scientific literature, but went beyond this in terms of interactions with stakeholders, building on the co-design processes in the project to reach out to stakeholder networks of businesses, NGOs, local and national policy makers.

INNOPATHS created four innovative online tools to explain its pathways, technological transitions and policies, to different constituencies. Through these tools and other dissemination and communication mechanisms, INNOPATHS has had a substantial impact on the climate and energy policy debates, increasing the probability that decisions in this area will were taken in an informed and cost-effective way.

Click here for an overview of the project.