The Energy Climate and Modelling Forum (ECMF) held its General Assembly meeting online on March 26, 2026 marking an another significant milestone in establishing a permanent forum for energy and climate researchers and policymakers.
The meeting reviewed ECMF’s history, governance, and mission, noting the Forum formed from a merger of two initiatives, ECEMF and EFECT. Today it operates with six co-directors and a shared secretariat, and emphasizes democratic rotation of the co-directorship to support evidence-based, policy-relevant modeling and timely communication to policymakers and stakeholders. The organizers outlined immediate operational items including two active model-comparison exercises (a diagnostics protocol and a PRISMA scenario protocol), a YAML template for data submission, and the ECEMP conference on 20–21 October in Brussels with an abstract and session submission deadline of 12 June. The group confirmed ECMF’s supporting role for ECEMP and discussed producing policy briefs or special issues as conference outputs.
Discussion then focused on candidate modeling missions and process. Franziska Holz (DIW Berlin) presented a shortlist that included industry decarbonization, the role of nuclear, offshore wind, energy efficiency, and supply-chain resilience; participants urged broadening energy efficiency to include demand-side measures, explicitly integrating climate and integrated assessment models, and studying social acceptability for large renewables. Attendees recommended linking missions to near-term policy priorities (energy security, competitiveness, infrastructure) and involving stakeholders early and iteratively. The forum agreed to collect written and chat inputs, produce a short list for a democratic vote, hold follow-up working meetings after Easter and before the fall General Assembly, and present prioritized missions to stakeholders at the end-of-October ECEMP meeting.
Brokerage event
Then the co-directors framed the brokerage event as a first brainstorming to support formation of two or three consortia for an upcoming Horizon call focused on next-generation scenarios and to promote data harmonization across projects. A live document was prepared to collect members’ expressions of interest and potential roles.
The brokerage event aims to catalyze formation of two to three consortia from forum members for the Horizon call with a deadline around spring 2027.
