Moving towards a low-carbon society

The aim of the 'Knowledge based climate mitigation systems for a low carbon economy' (COMPLEX) project is to help policymakers facilitate change. This will be achieved without compromising cultural and natural life-support systems.

Project members will explore new energy technologies, new ways of using landscapes and new policy instruments. Through a range of research activities, COMPLEX will explore the relationship between culture, models, human behaviour, space timescales and carbon economics.

Researchers will conduct case studies from Italy, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden based on models of climate change and carbon emission. They will develop a suite of modelling tools and decision-support systems for helping manage the transition to a low-carbon economy by 2050.

The project will also integrate the knowledge of many stakeholder communities, such as in changes in land use due to carbon-related technologies. Other problem areas to be studied by the consortium include energy, agriculture, forestry and infrastructure.

Project partners will explore acceptance, implementation and realisation of climate mitigation policies. This will be done at the landscape scale from the perspectives of those key actors and communities most important for their implementation.

The consortium will also support the transition of Sweden's Stockholm-Malar region to a low-carbon society by analysing strategic societal choices and their consequences. This includes designing a toolkit for analysing emerging land-use patterns, economic development and impact of policy instruments. It will also analyse short- and long-term processes that connect scientific support to decision making at various levels.

COMPLEX will help uncover the path to a low-carbon society under varying climate scenarios and changes in the world situation. It will inform national and supranational policy and support those communities across Europe that are seeking to make the transition to a low-carbon economy.