Snowmass Workshop- Enabling Realistic Pathways & Actions to Climate Goals

The Snowmass series of workshops spanning over 25 years has catalyzed interaction between researchers using integrated assessment and leading experts in areas such as climate science, technology, health, economics, policy, and political science to address pressing questions. With the suspension of this summer’s Snowmass workshop due to the pandemic, we are organizing this virtual session to continue to foster interaction.

Workshop Objective: This 3-day workshop seeks to exchange perspectives on (day 1) the definition and use of climate goals and what would make transitions implied by the goals broadly wanted, (day 2) the wide range of pathways to climate goals and what makes them more-or-less probable, and (day 3) policies and actions to reach climate goal and what areas are outpacing or lagging-behind pathways. This workshop’s theme is moving from pathways thought to be infeasible to ones that could be probable.

The workshop is composed of 9 one-hour sessions framed to focus discussion, beginning with inspirational keynotes in the first one-hour session. The workshop is structured to maximize discussion. Sessions two through eight each start with a series of short initial comments to jumpstart discussion, followed with a significant amount of time for open discussion, and conclude with some reflections. The last session will focus on opportunities for future Snowmass workshops, activities, or research. In this workshop we will observe the Chatham House Rule to promote inclusive and open discussion.