The development of the GCAM-Europe model, another of the six core IAMs of the DIAMOND project, officially kicked off on the 18th of May, in Bilbao, back to back with our first General Assembly (May 16-17, see here).
As part of the DIAMOND project activities, GCAM-Europe will be developed as a regionally disaggregated version of the current state-of-the-art GCAM model, including a representation of each EU member state, as well as additional countries relevant to the broader European context. During the meeting, we agreed that the new model will feature significant improvements in the representation of key mitigation technologies, including hydropower and storage, as well as a higher resolution in terms of sectoral representation, most notably for the built environment, with the addition of multiple energy uses. Discussions on the representation of other sectors, including industry, transport, and agriculture, potential expansions, as well as the link with additional modules within DIAMOND also took place.
With the meeting taking place after the general assembly, partners not actively involved in the development of GCAM-Europe also had the opportunity to join the core model teams (BC3, ICCS, UMD), fueling discussions of interest to all model-related processes in the project (e.g., open science principles, development pipelines, etc.). Notably, Dr. Ryna Yiyun Cui (UMD) presented lessons learnt from the development of GCAM-USA for the consortium to follow and/or adapt while Dr. Stephanie Briers (ETH) also had the opportunity to coordinate an interactive session with participating modelling partners on stakeholder interactions, strengthening the link between model development and co-creation activities within the project.
