Increasing the contribution of EU agriculture to climate change action

© BrightSpace

Effective and sustainable strategies to navigate within a safe and just operating space

What is the concept of the BrightSpace project? The project is based on the "Safe and Just Operational Space" (SJOS) concept (Raworth, 2012), in which the safe component represents the biophysical boundaries of the ecosystem, and the fair component represents the wellbeing needs of people. The role of society and politics is twofold: it must help to reduce the gaps in the figure on the inner circular arc, by correcting the factors that overshoot towards the center, while preventing ecological overshoot.

The basic idea of ​​the project is to produce scenarios based on public policies, institutional and social reforms, as well as possible technological development, which represent the development paradigms of humanity using complex modeling tools examining the agri-food sector. To evaluate these scenarios, easy-to-understand indicators for economic performance (e.g., income, agricultural production, and food prices), social performance (e.g., diet and agricultural employment) and environmental impacts (e.g., agricultural and forestry land use, greenhouse gases, and soil erosion) will be used.

The simulation models used in the project provide an opportunity to examine the economic and environmental impacts together. Among them are those that depict European agricultural markets in great detail, but there are also special land use and forest management models, and one model specifically examines the role of agriculture within the macro economy. By combining these models, it will be possible to examine the agri-food industry system along the entire supply chain, at different levels of sectoral and geographical resolution, as well as in different time dimensions, mainly in the medium and long term.

Researchers are developing a harmonized data framework and modeling toolbox for medium-term and forward-looking projections of possible safe and just operating space futures by 2050 and beyond. IIASA is a project partner and the Integrated Biosphere Futures Research Group of the IIASA Biodiversity and Natural Resources (BNR) Program leads a work package focusing on modeling EU policies for a safe and just operating space. The support for effective and sustainable actions will include the identification of critical pathways for technological, institutional, and consumer-oriented options for EU policies in the areas of agriculture, climate change, trade, and energy.

BrightSpace brings together 15 research institutions from eight EU countries and the UK and builds on established modeling tools that are used to predict the impacts of climate, agricultural, and forestry policies, at the local, national, and regional levels.

Annual project meeting in Prague

At the project’s annual meeting, hosted by the Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague (ČZU) between 12 and 13 October 2023, the partners reviewed the status and progress of the project in its first year and to draw up a road map for the second year of the project. IIASA was represented at the meeting by BNR Program Director Petr Havlík and IIASA researchers Stefan Frank, Michael Woegerer, Marta Kozicka, and Tamas Krisztin.

To ensure that the project meets the EU’s policy needs in the short- and long-term, representatives of the European Commission, as well as noted experts in agricultural policy and impact assessment who are members of the Scientific and Policy Advisory Board participated in the meeting.

Further information:
www.brightspace-project.eu