June 8, 2023
In May, Climate Interactive’s Executive Director Andrew Jones and En-ROADS Climate Ambassador Laura Iyer shared the En-ROADS simulator with attendees of the Ocean Race Summit in Newport, Rhode Island, USA, with an added challenge - create a plan to reduce global warming to less than 2°C in just 15 minutes.
With their collective input, participants successfully created a scenario that cut warming to 1.8°C. After reducing deforestation, electrifying buildings and transportation, halting coal use, and more, the model showed surrounding land saved from sea level rise and ocean pH restored.
Healthy oceans play a crucial role in regulating climate by acting as carbon sinks, where carbon dioxide is sequestered from the atmosphere and greenhouse gas concentrations are reduced.
The Ocean Race Summit is more than just a sporting competition. It brings together global players from the worlds of government, science, industry, NGOs, media, and sport, along with passionate ocean advocates, to focus efforts to improve ocean health. The summits are hosted by Danni Washington, a science communicator, TV personality, and ocean explorer.
Beginning at the stopover in Newport, Rhode Island during the 2014-15 edition of the Race, The Ocean Race is the only major sporting event to hold a global series of conferences that focus on solutions addressing the threats to our ocean. The Summits have become one of the most important elements of The Ocean Race’s sustainability program, created in collaboration with 11th Hour Racing, by galvanizing commitments to the ocean made by legislators, businesses, ocean advocates, NGOs, and others.
Developed by Climate Interactive, the MIT Sloan Sustainability Initiative, and Ventana Systems, En-ROADS is a global climate simulator that helps people make connections between things they care about and the possibilities available to help ensure a resilient future. En-ROADS is freely available online, available in over a dozen languages, and can be learned in a free online training course.
To view the brief presentation and observe the simulator in action, watch the video above.