Equinox Week in Brussels: From Climate Economics to Societal Transformation

Leading figures in finance, economic modelling, climate change, society’s structure and behaviour change contributed to a fascinating and productive two days of Equinox events in Brussels last week.

The Equinox Process, with JPI Climate and MAGICA, drew experts from across Europe to separately and together move forward on these key issues facing policymakers, driven by cutting edge climate science.

Two events: the Equinox Workshop: Societal transformation in the face of climate change and the Equinox Dialogue: Modelling the Economics of Climate Change, opened on December 11 at the HQ of BELSPO, with a joint session culminating participants from both events together.

The topics and aims were introduced by JPI Climate Vice Chair Frank McGovern, followed by Jan Fuglestvedt, Research Director of CICERO and Vice-chair  of IPCC Working Group III, and Petra Manderscheid, Executive Director of the Central Secretariat at JPI Climate.

Then the groups split into their respective events, running in parallel.

Elina Bardram is Director for Climate Resilience and Information Management, DG Climate Action, European Commission and Mission Manager for the European Union Mission on Adaptation to Climate Change. She had clear and practical advice for the Societal transformation in the face of climate change workshop: “We don’t always need to reinvent the wheel, sometimes the most simple solutions are the most powerful. We just need to harness them…Citizens’ capacity shouldn’t be undermined by policymakers…”

Then speakers and delegates sat together for two round table discussions (see full list of speakers and programme).

‘Research outcomes for Societal, Transformation – status today and knowledge gaps’ was the first Round Table, led by Gregor Laumann of the German Aerospace Center (DLR). The panelists were Andrea Catellani of Université catholique de Louvain; Roberto San Jose of Universidad Politécnica de Madrid; Siret Talve, of the Board of the EU Mission on Adaptation to Climate Change, Tallinn University; and Anne Maria Eikeset Norges Bank Investment Management.

Philippe Tulkens, European Commission DG for Research and Innovation and Deputy DG for the Mission Planet, People and Science for Policy, chaired the second Round Table on ‘Societal Transformation going forwards – from research gaps to action’. His panelists were Tristan Beyens of Cerac; Jorn Verbeeck of the EU Mission for Climate-Neutral & Smart Cities; Maria Sanchez of the Basque Centre for Climate Change; Roseline Remans, Director of glocolearning and Honorary Research Fellow of Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, lead author of IPBES Transformative Change; and Vilija Balionyte-Merle of SINTEF Digital and RESIST Project.

Meanwhile the Economic Modelling Dialogue started with a special video message from IPCC Chair Jim Skea, setting the tone for a day of in-depth exchanges.

Annela Anger-Kraavi, Chief Executive at The Cambridge Trust for New Thinking in Economics, opened the dialogue with an overview of the current state of play in IAMs, highlighting both uses and limitations that need to be addressed. Subsequent sessions explored core modelling assumptions, including how climate change impacts, adaptation and mitigation policies are represented, with contributions from Christian Lutz, The Institute of Economic Structures Research, and Elmar Kriegler, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.

In the afternoon, discussions turned to equity and justice in IAMs, examining critiques and emerging approaches, with presentations by Johannes Emmerling and Marc Vielle, senior scientists at Senior Scientist, Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change (CMCC) and École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), respectively. The final thematic session focused on technology development, technology transfer and carbon dioxide removal in IAMs, with contributions from Dirk-Jan van der Ven and Theo Rouhette, from Barcelona Computing Centre, and Daniela Faggiani Dias (CMCC).

A joint reception in the evening brought together participants of the Equinox Workshop on societal transformation in the face of climate change with those of the dialogue on economic modelling. The day’s discussions were shared, giving delegates and speakers the chance to create new connections and strengthen existing ones.

Day 2 on December 12 was devoted to the Modelling the Economics of Climate Change agenda, with more attendees joining online (see the full programme).

The programme was opened by Gregor Laumann, DLR Projektträger, with experts Jörn Hoffmann, Application Partnerships Lead, European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts – ECMWF; Phil Summerton, CEO, Cambridge Econometrics; and Irene Monasterolo, Professor of Climate Finance, Utrecht University’s School of Economics, IPCC AR7 WG3 Lead Author (Finance chapter).

Phil Summerton of Cambridge Econometrics joined online to present on Finance and financial flows in IAMs. In a busy Q&A session he expanded on the importance of getting the balance right in policy-facing climate economic models: “If they are too simple, they are not convincing… policy-makers often just want to know the answer but they also don’t want just a ‘black box’…” He recommended that climate economic models must clearly set out what the models are sensitive to and events / information they respond to. In the same vein, representatives of the European Investment Bank (EIB) and European Central Bank had earlier talked about the support they need from climate scientists in terms of developing climate change risk indicators.

The day concluded with a reflection on key takeaways and next steps towards CNF2026.