INNOPATHS is a H2020 project with the ambition to reassess and explore the full implications – energy, economic, social and environmental – of the low-carbon pathways of the European Union and its Member-States.
General aims
The overall objective of INNOPATHS is to work with key economic and societal actors to generate new enhanced low-carbon pathways for the European Union, taking full account of the global context. This objective aligns with the priorities of the Paris Agreement and the EU climate and energy policy commitments for 2020, 2030 and 2050.
To meet this overall objective, INNOPATHS has five concrete aims:
- Understanding the challenges of decarbonisation and the innovation needed to address them
- Presenting a detailed assessment of low-carbon technologies, their uncertainties, future prospects and system characteristics
- Proposing policy and innovation system reforms that will help the EU and Member States meet their greenhouse gas emission reduction targets
- Creating new, co-designed deep decarbonisation pathways with novel representation of policy and innovation process for low-carbon technology development.
- Making clear the social, economic and environmental dimensions of the low-carbon transition and how they can be managed
CMCC Role
Within INNOPATHS, CMCC is the Work Package leader of WP2 – Innovation for the energy transition. CMCC also carries out research in all other Work Packages.
Dr Elena Verdolini has Risk Monitor functions and will be responsible for monitoring the gender, age balance and equal opportunities aspects of INNOPATHS in terms of research, organisation and management.
Expected results
The aim of INNOPATHS is to deliver a proposal for a low-carbon strategy for the EU, which will have maximum chances to be effectively implemented, accepted and well-managed.
Activity
The distinguishing features of INNOPATHS are: a) the co-design process in which a large number of stakeholders will work together with the modellers to shape the low-carbon pathway design, b) the strong emphasis on technology innovation, with inclusion of technologies not fully explored in the EU Roadmaps, and focus on the ways technology readiness will enable cost-efficient low-carbon transformation and provide opportunities for new industrial growth and employment, and c) the consideration of policies which aim at alleviating adverse effects and risks, primarily related to affordability, financing, industrial competitiveness, social aspects, governance, air pollution, materials, land and food.
The following activities will be carried out:
- Country- and EU-level system innovation analysis
- Applied analysis of innovation dynamics
- Analysis of energy and environmental policies and instruments
- Development of a framework for the impact assessment of public policies
- Model simulation
- Model development
- Stakeholder involvement and co-design
Partners
- CMCC - Centro Euro-Mediterraneo sui Cambiamenti Climatici
- UU - Universiteit Utrecht
- PIK - Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research
- UCL - University College London
- E3M - E3Modelling
- AU - Aalto University
- WUT - Warsaw University of Technology
- SPO - Sciences Po
- SPRU - Science Policy Research, University of Sussex
- EUI - European University Institute
- ETH - Swiss Federal Institute of Technology
- ACS - Allianz Climate Solutions
- ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability (SME)
- N&S - Nice and Serious (SME)