DSE's Kigali Sim Provides United Nations with Unprecedented Opportunity to Achieve Environmental Goals
We're thrilled to announce the debut of Kigali Sim: an open source modeling tool that we co-designed with the United Nations Multilateral Fund and over a dozen countries and supporting organizations.
Highlights
Kigali Sim provides global policymakers with unprecedented analytical and computing power to reach environmental and climate goals under the Montreal Protocol. The tool can:
Help a hypothetical, middle-income nation formulate policies that could reduce overall greenhouse gas emissions by about 5% by 2040. This would be the equivalent of the US cutting half of all agriculture-related emissions.
Improve global regulation of highly-potent greenhouse gases, such as hydrofluorocarbons.
Simulate possible outcomes of policy interventions with greater efficiency and ease than previously possible.
Enable those without programming expertise to access advanced modeling techniques, including optional AI features, and can work in a web browser. Watch a brief simulation below!
Shot and edited by Ava Hu, Graduate School of Journalism
Impact
The 5% estimation described above would represent around 10% of that country’s target for emissions reductions under the Paris Agreement given past commitments, long term goals, and expected cooling pressures. These approximations do not factor in additional co-benefits from reductions, including a country’s transition to more sustainable energy usage, which will likely produce greater environmental benefits overall.
Visit the Kigali Sim project page to explore the user-centered design process and to learn more about the Multilateral Fund, which helps developing nations reduce production and consumption of HFCs and ozone depleting substances under the Montreal Protocol.
Partner Perspectives
“Kigali Sim offers an exciting opportunity to use cutting-edge data science tools like AI to guide funding implementation under the Montreal Protocol. This tool provided a depth of policy analysis in under three hours that would have previously taken me three days to produce.”
Balaji Natarajan, Secretariat of the Multilateral Fund for the Implementation of the Montreal Protocol, United Nations Environment Programme
“With this new resource, we can make greater strides to preserve our global environment. It’s a compelling example of how we can bridge the innovation brought by university research centers like DSE with international policy making."
Tina Birmpili, Chief Officer of the Multilateral Fund
