WorldTrans - Transparent Assessments for Real People

• Project title: WorldTrans - Transparent Assessments for Real People
• Project webpage: http://www.worldtrans-horizon.eu/
• Funding: EU, Horizon Europe
• Duration: December 1, 2022 – November 31, 2026
• Project coordinator: Norwegian Meteorological Institute (MET Norway).
• Partners involved: The consortium comprises 10 research institutions in Europe.
• Staff involved: Birgit Kopainsky, William Schoenberg, and Jefferson K. Rajah.

Objectives

WorldTrans is designed to address four specific objectives: (1) To build new communities of integrated assessment modeling experts and users (citizens and stakeholders alike), based on a transparent approach to integrated assessments; (2) To unpack and quantify the potential importance of including heterogeneous human behaviour in integrated assessment models, (3) To identify main feedback loops and policy leverage points for climate-neutrality oriented policies; and (4) To produce quantitatively consistent results for various assessment processes including all three working groups of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and for the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). 

Contribution of the System Dynamics Group, UiB

• UiB leads work package 3 in developing the WorldTrans - FRIDA model as a highly aggregated pedagogically focused IAM focused on capturing the feedback processes which link nature, human behaviour, and the technology-energy-economy domains; as well as the interactive learning environment to enhance the transparency of the project’s modelling work.
• UiB co-leads work package 2 in including a fully endogenous representation of behavioural feedback loops between human and Earth systems in integrated assessment modelling and investigate the implications of these on mitigation pathways, with a particular focus on shifts in value systems.
• In work package 4, UiB will identify ways of democratizing integrated assessment models by using the project’s models in stakeholder engagements and codeveloping processes for mutual envisioning and understanding of models and their uses. 
• UiB also supports WorldTrans in all work packages with participatory system dynamics methods (e.g., verification and validation of models as well as scenario/policy formulation and analysis).