International 2050 pathways partnerships

Expanding and building on the innovative UK-developed interactive energy and emissions scenario ‘2050 calculator’, DECC is assisting ten developing country governments to build similar calculators as strategic platforms toward a low carbon future. DECC will be providing £1.5 million over 2012-2014 to work directly with the developing country governments to help them build their own version of the UK’s 2050 Calculator. DECC will provide training on how to use it to explore viable low carbon development pathways with stakeholders and to inform policy making. Through engaging in a dialogue around the 2050 calculator, involved countries are encouraged to evaluate their unique opportunities and risks towards low carbon development. The tool will support developing countries drawing up their own low-carbon development plans helping them to be analytically robust, transparent and easily communicated. Recipient countries may include Bangladesh, Brazil, South Africa, India, Mexico, Colombia, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, Algeria and Nigeria. The 2050 calculator has already been used to influence low carbon plans in the UK and Belgium, and the China is in the early stages of analysing what their version means for their low carbon development. To complement the national calculators this project will also develop a comprehensive, robust and influential “Global Calculator”. It will primarily be a communications tool aimed at energising the debate on climate change ahead of the 2015 negotiations, by helping to answer questions on how the global energy, food and land use system “adds up” (for example: what is the maximum global potential for nuclear power?; do we have enough raw materials to support possible future consumption habits?, and; what is the trade off of land for bioenergy, food production and forestry?). The target audience is businesses, NGOs and government officials working in strategy functions and international negotiations (from finance, environment, energy and transport ministries). The project would begin at the start of 2013 and finish by the end of 2014. This timetable means the tool would be rolled out in advance of the UNFCCC 2015 negotiations aimed at reaching a new international agreement with legal force to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. ;