IAM COMPACT Final Event: Responsive Science in Support of Climate Policy Making
After the Paris Agreement in 2015, when governments agreed to a temperature goal of limiting global mean temperature increase to well-below-2oC, the world saw years of increasing climate ambition. It soon became clear that energy and climate policies have dramatically strengthened in the past few years and are bearing fruit. The international landscape, however, has been fast evolving, with climate change unfolding faster than ever and amidst a polycrisis: from a global pandemic to major international conflict, onto energy supply crisis, and now a shift away from globalisation towards protectionism.
With countries committing to ambitious pledges on bold emissions reductions, such as the EU’s net zero target by 2050 that is being increasingly reflected in Member States’ national energy and climate plans, there is growing scientific evidence that we should be less concerned over low ambition and more about feasibility and emerging challenges. In this dynamic landscape, there is growing pressure on scientists to consider the fast-shifting policy priorities and explore aspects that reflect society’s emerging questions.
In this direction, the IAM COMPACT research project under the Horizon Europe framework programme sought to set up a novel engagement process, its Policy Response Mechanism, to coordinate scientific efforts that respond to what policymakers, industry leaders, and citizens are most concerned about. Throughout its 3-year duration and based on this Mechanism, IAM COMPACT produced dozens of studies that were transparently co-designed with stakeholders. As the project is nearing its completion, we are excited to organise and invite you to its final, public event, on Friday, August 29, 2025, at the Acropolis Museum in Athens, Greece. The event aims to serve as the third of a series of conferences on Climate Change, Energy, and the Environment (following the 2020 and 2022 editions).
In five different thematic sessions, we plan to present our process and findings, engage in panel discussions, and address your questions in lively interactions with the audience, altogether addressing the most pertinent questions emerging from our Policy Response Mechanism:
How can the EU deliver on its Green Deal and long-term targets, while boosting security, flexibility and resilience? Do national governments align with the bloc’s targets? And what would the distributional and lifestyle implications be?
How can Europe remain competitive towards net zero, in a world of trade tensions and geopolitical challenges?
What climate change impacts is Greece up against and how can it adapt? Is the country doing enough to align its mitigation efforts with global and EU climate action? How can we make the best of the available European funding tools?
What are the broader sustainability implications of ambitious climate action, including from a biodiversity, material, and biophysical perspective? How should we manage land in the context of renewable energy expansion towards climate neutrality? Can we shield our societies and their sustainable transformation against disruptive events?
What is the role of countries with limited capabilities in mitigation efforts, and how can scientists help them prepare? Does the scientific and policy debate align with their broader-than-climate sustainable development priorities and their need to recover from conflict, recession, food scarcity, and continuous climate disaster?
Mayor of Athens, Haris Doukas, will also join us with a policy intervention!
The event’s agenda is available here!
Register here and join us alongside people from policy, industry, academia, and civil society to get informed, discuss, raise concerns, and help show the way forward!
Image credit: © Acropolis Museum, photo: Nikos Daniilidis
