Governing destabilisation pathWAYS and Phase-OUT: Pluralising knowledge in support of deliberate low-carbon transitions governance ans strategies

The WAYS-OUT project progressed steadily during 2023, with 15 months now remaining until the end of the project, given that at the end of 2022, a 12 month porlongation was agreed.

This additional time allowed for a re-evaluation and slight adjuectment of objectives, as proposed and justified in the mid-term report of November 2022. The project has also mobilised in-house capacity to think about its impact pathway, which is useful to better define priorities in this last part of the project lifetime. 

According to the adjusted project plan, WAYS-OUT is progressing as expected, which means that 1) some of the enquiries have been clsoed and published, 2) a majority of enquiries are still ongoing and requiring finalisation, while 3) most of the remaining analytical work concerns comparison and translation to various publics.

TF1 (Theory and framework development) is showing good overall progress. The overall framing is stabilised and is receiving very positive feedback. Some difficulties concerning comparison and typology development remain to be addressed, namely concerning the most appropriate dimensions around whihc to construct these given the relatively heterogenous case material (non-standardised case studies).

TF2 (Socio-technical case studies) is showing good overall progress. There have been a number of deviations from the initial case selection (whihc is entirely expected). 2 cases have been completed and published, 6 cases are showing good progress, 3 cases have been abandonned (in previous years), while 2 cases still face an uncertain future (preliminary scoping has been done, but capactiy is currently lacking to perform the research).

TF3 (Socio-technical scenarios) had to be abandonned in late 2022, due to a loss of critical research capacity.

TF4 (Modelling) has progressed well in 2023, notably through the work performed by 2 interns and successfully defended MA dissertations at CIRED.

TF5 (Governance and evaluation) is progressing well. It has been decided to first focus on these questions around the pesticieds case, and then to apply the reflection on governance and strategies to all other cases, as a particular dimension of case comparison. Translationsof project findings to users from policy and practice remain to be done.

TF6 (knowledge, expertise, reflexivity) is progressing well. The scoping note has enabled the progress of empirical progress on 2 areas of expertise under constraint (energy modlling and agri-food modelling). The energy modelling case has been published; the agri-food modelling case still needs to be finalised, which will then enable a comparative dimension.