The current energy crisis poses considerable challenges for companies. In a practice-oriented climate simulation workshop, students of the Master's degree programs "Sustainable Corporate Management" and "Financial Management" at Aalen University have now developed scenarios and strategies for coping with climate change with the help of the world-renowned climate simulator En-ROADS. The resulting findings highlight the need for global measures to meet the climate targets of the Paris Agreement. In addition, the question of how companies can proceed strategically in view of the current geopolitical situation surrounding the procurement of energy in order to overcome the energy crisis efficiently and successfully - and thus also make a valuable contribution to achieving the goals of the World Climate Conference - was discussed.

The economic situation in Europe is currently characterized by political crises and economic uncertainties. This is leading to historically significant changes on the energy markets. These are currently experiencing extreme price increases and high volatility, which can lead to significant cost increases and fluctuations at company level, even with low energy consumption. This results in a clear increase in capital requirements and liquidity risk in production and supply chains. In addition, the economy is facing a tightening of market price risk for energy, which is affecting margins. In view of these current changes and the great uncertainty regarding possible future scenarios, it is becoming increasingly difficult for companies in almost all sectors to continue purchasing energy using traditional methods.

Against this current background, the students of the Master's degree programs "Sustainable Corporate Management" and "Financial Management" at Aalen University recently held an interactive lecture with workshop character on the topic of the energy crisis and climate protection. The lecture focused on the central question of which solutions are effective in achieving the 1.5 degree target in the face of advancing climate change. These and other questions were discussed in the plenary session with an engaged audience.

The students used the globally established tool En-ROADS to simulate possible scenarios. En-ROADS is a freely available, web-based climate simulation model developed with the support of scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). "It is one of the best-known methods for developing climate scenarios and strategies. The tool gives our students an intuitive and practice-oriented approach to the complex topic of climate change," explained course director Prof. Dr. Simone Häußler. The groups developed individual solution scenarios to effectively tackle the 1.5 degree target based on parameters they selected themselves (for example, electrification of transport or use of renewable energies). The special thing about this is that En-ROADS enabled the students to incorporate their own values into the selection of parameters and thus into their modeling and to precisely test the effectiveness of their selection over long periods of time. By using the simulation tool, the students realized that individual measures - for example the use of CO2 certificates - have little effect on their own and that effective, measurable combinations of measures must be considered globally.

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