Workshop on Systems Thinking in Climate Assemblies: What Role for Systems Modelling?

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What role for systems modelling in climate assemblies? How can organisers of climate assemblies help to facilitate systems thinking amongst members of the assembly Can systems approaches, including modelling, support learning, deliberation and decision-making towards national sustainability goals?

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The climate crisis is multifaceted: it is intertwined with social and ecological crisis. Its causes and impacts reach across borders and policy areas and require a fundamental rethinking of current systems of production and consumption. Both the diagnosis of the challenges and the implementation of effective solutions rely on systems knowledge and interventions. But we encounter both challenges and opportunities in working with systems. Systems tools, especially quantitative models, underpin the evidence base for climate action and yet are also often implicated in climate change denial. Systems approaches may demotivate or polarise just as they may empower or give new insights into complex situations.

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This workshop was led by Tim Daw and Sarah Cornell, both Associate Professors and Principal Researchers at the Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University. They have been wrestling with these challenges as they consider different systems approaches and tools to integrate into the Swedish Climate Assembly that takes place in 2024. In this workshop, they shared their learning so far and introducing the KNOCA community to the challenges and opportunities they encountered. Followed by their presentation, Claire Mellier (co-initiator of the Global Assembly) and Martin Rausch (Associate of the Co-Intelligence Institute) responded with their perspectives.

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