TRANSIENCE

The need to approach climate action, resource efficiency, and the circular economy as integrated, economy-wide, cross-cutting issues is gaining increasing attention in politics, stimulating the development of new industrial policies in Europe and worldwide. However, little progress has been made in conceptualising the circular economy and understanding its interactions with climate action, as advanced modelling methods for this are still largely lacking. The researchers now want to close this gap with the TRANSIENCE project by investigating the following aspects using a model-based approach:

• the interactions between decarbonisation and circular economy
• the impact of both agendas on European industry, especially on energy-intensive sectors
• the compatibility of the transformation of European industry with the EU's goal of achieving climate neutrality by 2050

MIC3: Model for European Industry, Circularity and Climate Change Mitigation

The TRANSIENCE project aims to allow for a quantitative assessment of transformation pathways, providing an integrated view of decarbonisation and circularity through to 2050, with a focus on European heavy industry. To this end, the project team produces a consistent, fully open-source model ecosystem called MIC3 (Model for European Industry, Circularity and Climate Change Mitigation), for quantitatively assessing diverse pathways toward industrial circularity, decarbonisation, and sustainability in Europe. Through its modular architecture, the MIC3 ecosystem will allow for full integration of what TRANSIENCE frames as six key dimensions of the transition to a climate-neutral, sustainable, and circular industry: the socioeconomic, product and service, material, industrial, energy system, and environmental dimensions. 

The Wuppertal Institute's Sectors and Technologies Research Unit contributes by integrating the ITOM (Industry Transformation Optimisation Model) industry system model as well as by co-developing the material flow analysis module of MIC3, while the Transformative Industrial Policy Research Unit is in charge of the accompanying stakeholder co-creation processes.