The Workshop
Horizons Décarbonés is a collaborative forward-looking workshop designed as a natural continuation of climate awareness work, helping participants envision and understand pathways toward a low-carbon future. Based on the ADEME Transition(s) 2050 and RTE scenarios, this 3-hour workshop invites groups of participants to explore different lifestyle choices and systemic changes that could enable France - and by extension, other nations - to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. By embodying fictional characters making lifestyle choices, participants experience the real trade-offs and possibilities inherent in decarbonization.
Why It Matters
Decarbonization is essential for limiting climate change to safe levels, and understanding realistic pathways toward carbon neutrality is crucial for building social support for necessary transitions. This workshop is vital because it offers a positive, desirable vision of the future rather than focusing solely on problems. By helping participants understand that decarbonization is technically feasible and involves transformations across energy, transport, food, housing, and consumption systems, the workshop builds the understanding and motivation needed to support ambitious climate action.
Good to Know
Horizons Décarbonés is based on rigorous scientific scenarios from ADEME (Transition(s) 2050) and RTE, the French transmission system operator. The workshop can be participated in independently - prior experience with Climate Fresk is not required. Participants work in teams embodying fictional characters, making choices between different lifestyle cards where card width represents CO2e emissions and card height represents energy consumed. The workshop helps participants understand the scale of emissions reductions needed and the multiple pathways available for achieving carbon neutrality in different sectors.
What to Expect
During the 3-hour workshop, participants work in teams, each embodying a fictional character with distinct lifestyle contexts. Teams make choices between different cards representing transport modes, housing types, food systems, and consumption patterns, with each card's dimensions indicating climate impact. An animator guides teams through discussions about their choices and trade-offs. Participants discover how combining multiple changes across different life domains can achieve carbon neutrality, learning both the magnitude of individual transformation and the systemic changes in energy systems needed to support decarbonized lifestyles by 2050.