2050 Calculator programme overview

Earlier this year, the UK Government launched the next phase of its International 2050 Carbon Calculator programme. Run by the UK Department of Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS), this £3M, 3-year programme will run to the end of 2021 and support up to 15 countries around the world to upgrade and/or develop new 2050 Calculators. The ultimate objective is to support governments to deepen their domestic action on climate change and strengthen ambition under the 2015 Paris Agreement.

The urgent need to transition economies to low-carbon pathways to mitigate climate change was the key driver for the development of the UK’s Calculator, and the subsequent growth of Calculators around the world. Policy design is a complex exercise that poses a multitude of confounding options to legislators and often requires a balancing act between competing priorities. These challenges are especially more pronounced in the energy sector, which is undergoing significant transformations across the value chain with the arrival of disruptive technologies and business intermediaries. One way to tackle these challenges and uncertainties is to adopt a holistic data-based approach, wherein impacts of different policy choices on emissions, energy security, electricity systems, amongst others, are analysed and weighed against each other to arrive at the most effective decision.

It is with this in mind that the UK developed its own 2050 Calculator in 2010 – an open source, transparent and interactive energy model that uses a ‘pathways’ and ‘scenarios’ approach to help understand the impact of interventions in select energy demand and supply sectors on key macro parameters such as energy cost, energy supply, demand balance, emissions, carbon footprint, land-use, agriculture, forestry etc. Owing to its tremendous success in contributing to climate mitigation commitments and facilitating informed policymaking, the 2050 Calculator has now been replicated in more than 10 countries, along with a Global Calculator.