Energy, Biodiversity & Climate

Where can new renewable energy infrastructure be build? Where can ecosystems be given a protected status? We develop a serious game to explore these questions with relevant stakeholders. The game will represent abstracted cantons, and we will see what projects players develop together, if their combined efforts bring them closer to their desired potential future(s), and if these futures align with the federal energy and biodiversity targets.

Interviews and trial of the preliminary version of the game are being run to refine the initial plan and test, alongside our colleagues from ETHZ, the validity of the game as a useful interaction format for science-policy dialogue.

If you have any comment or if you would like to know more, please contact Swen Bos.

We aim at mathematically modelling the social and ecological processes that affect, or result from, the different choices made regarding renewable energy production and biodiversity conservation.

The social part of the model will be based on an analysis of stakeholders in the fields of energy, biodiversity, but also other sectors such as agriculture and tourism. We will engage with stakeholders at the local, cantonal and federal levels. We will conduct interviews, workshops, and more specifically make use of the serious game being developed by our EMPA colleagues.The ecological part of the model will be developed in collaboration with other ETH Joint Initiatives, and supported by an extensive literature review.

If you have any comment or if you would like to know more, please contact Leila Schuh.

We here try to understand how individuals engage in science-policy dialogue around trade-offs pertaining to renewable energy production and biodiversity conservation. We look at cognitive and emotional processes at play in actors’ dialogue, making use of psychological research advances on topics such as conflict management and inter-professional collaboration. In particular, we look at the role of trust, empathy and self-awareness in this dialogue.

To do so, we review the relevant psychological literature, conduct different types of interviews, and observe dialogue as it happens within the dialogue formats piloted by our ETH colleagues.

If you have any comment or if you would like to know more, please contact Hélène Cristofari.