Policy Pathways is an interactive scenario tool that allows decision-makers to explore economic and policy levers for accelerating the transition to net zero.

Image credit: Fast Familiar

Research + Public Engagement.

Policy Pathways

Policy Pathways is an interactive scenario tool that allows decision-makers to explore economic and policy levers for accelerating the transition to net zero. Developed in collaboration with the UCL Climate Action Unit and Chatham House, it functions as a virtual policy gym where users can practice, discuss, and understand how different policy levers work in a concrete, real-world context to achieve climate goals. The tool also generates data on how policymakers rate and rank different policy options.

The tool was developed by the Climate Action Unit and the digital studio Fast Familiar ahead of COP26 in November 2021. It aimed to gather insights about what people working on climate change think of the policy options currently available, and to evaluate how decision-making skills are applied in a near-reality scenario for the energy system.

Entering the simulation via an online platform, participants join the Climate Strategy Advisory Board to a new Prime Minister who has been elected on the promise of delivering immediate climate action. The first task of the panel is to advise the PM on how to make a large-scale clean energy park a reality. Participants receive information through video clips, expert testimony, and written memos from the Prime Minister’s office. They are then asked to discuss and decide on the efficacy of suggested spending, taxation and regulatory policies to support the delivery of the clean energy park. In addition to offering policy practice, the tool also generates data. It logs people’s rating and ranking decisions on the efficacy of specific policy levers.

Policy Pathways was developed as a result of 20+ co-production workshops delivered in 2020-2021 with international policymakers and experts in climate risk and energy policy.

The Climate Action Unit summarised the results of the first round of simulation sessions in the Chatham House COP26 Virtual Pavilion. The tool has since been used with policy makers and in education settings.

You can read more about it, and see results on the CAU website.

Credits

WRITER Rachel Briscoe | DIRECTOR Dan Barnard | MEDIA CONTENT & TECH PLATFORM Joe McAlister | FOR CAU Kris De Meyer & Lucy Hubble-Rose | FEATURED EXPERTS Antony Froggatt, Matt Ives, Jenny Scott, Simon Sharpe.