The Paris Agreement has substantially increased the need for countries and regions to understand the full economic, social and environmental implications of the deep decarbonisation.

INNOPATHS (Innovation Pathways, Strategies and Policies for the Low-Carbon Transition in Europe) is a research project working with a range of stakeholders from government, academics and civil society, to generate new, state-of-the-art low-carbon pathways for the European Union.

It will do this, first, by assessing the anatomy of existing scenario and pathway studies for the low-carbon transition from technical, economic and social perspectives. The innovation systems and policy landscapes for key energy-using sectors of the economy will also be examined.

The insights from this process will feed into the structure of new low-carbon pathways, ‘co-designed’ with a wide range of stakeholders from government, industry, academia and civil society. These scenarios will then be quantitatively and qualitatively assessed for their technical, economic and social outcomes.

INNOPATHS will assess how the benefits of these pathways, such as new industries, jobs and competitiveness, may be maximised, and how any negative impacts, such as those on low-income households, or on carbon-intensive sectors, may be mitigated.

Detailed outputs from the project will be disseminated through four interactive ‘online tools’, providing decision-makers and other stakeholders with a vital resource for continuing analysis.