From Data to Action: CommitClimate Simulator for informed decision-making in Latvian Municipalities

Fossil fuel burning in urban transport, particularly commuting between suburbs, rural and urban areas, is a major contributor to CO2 emissions, alongside sectors like energy, waste, buildings, agriculture, and forestry. All of these should be considered for effective energy transition. However, a lack of skills and tools hinders municipalities from fully understanding their relative emissions and potential future scenarios. Additionally, impacts related to different implementation measures are not effectively assessed.
CommitClimate aims to address this by increasing the capacity of municipality staff and local stakeholders. The initiative of the Riga Technical University, Institute of Energy Systems and Environment, in Latvia includes the CommitClimate Simulator, a computer model for estimating CO2 emissions and modeling future scenarios considering the municipal borders. The simulator incorporates input data and outputs in various sectors, policy scenarios, measures, and national models. It is customized for each country, using default and official data and lies on realistic assumptions to reflect national conditions. Variables like land use patterns and demographics are crucial for defining sustainable mobility policies, and this are included in the simulator.
The initiative network of partners and beneficiaries across Sweden, Latvia, Estonia, and Poland helps identify national/local challenges related to energy data availability and decision-making.