For the average person, the complexity of climate change and a lack of clarity on impactful solutions can be paralyzing. For governmental leaders and decision-makers, it can help drive misguided investment in pie-in-the sky solutions that avoid more impactful policy decisions. En-Roads, a free, easy-to-use online dashboard and modeling tool co-developed by today’s guest, Andrew Jones, Executive Director of Climate Interactive, and a team at MIT’s Sloan Sustainability Initiative, allows anyone, from my mom to President Biden, to test out and explore the real-world impact of various climate solutions, based on systems thinking, dynamic systems modeling, and the latest climate data.
En-Roads is a great example of how the research activity, intellectual heft, innovative culture, and educational mission of an institution like MIT can be operationalized to meaningfully address climate change. Since its release in 2019, En-roads has influenced world leaders, policy-makers, and CEOS, been a centerpiece of high stakes climate talks, and used to train almost 800 Climate Ambassadors, who are scaling the use of the tool in the workplace, locals communities, schools, and on college campuses.
On this episode I talk to Drew about the origin of En-Roads, how the tool has influenced smart climate policies, En-Roads use as an educational tool, and his vision for En-Roads’s future.