The Project

Who we are

Economics for Net Zero Emissions (ENZE) is a new Joint Initiative created in January 2021 by 3 partners within the ETH Domain: Eawag, CER-ETH, and WSL. ENZE reflects the interest of these partners to use an economic framework in addressing the urgent challenge of achieving a net-zero emissions world. This partnership brings together core competence in economics with social science departments embedded within institutions with research strength in environmental sciences and environmental engineering.

Our focus and perspective

ENZE focuses on the topic of net-zero emissions, mainly in Switzerland. We approach this topic from the perspective of economics, offering powerful tools to integrate developments in markets, society, technology, and policy with the fundamental functioning of natural systems. Economics provides a starting point for engagement of other social sciences as well as engineering and natural sciences, thus taking advantage of the positioning of ENZE within the ETH Domain.

What we do and how we do it

ENZE develops a research agenda and creates a network to share knowledge, build capacity, and promote outreach related to achieving net-zero emissions, starting with an economic framework and building inter- and transdisciplinary partnerships. ENZE enables the network partners to conduct activities in research and outreach, including events and workshops. Our first workshop on “Research Gaps on the Way to Net Zero 2050” took place on September 29, 2020 in Zurich, organized jointly by Eawag, CER-ETH and WSL. This was the starting point of the ENZE initiative.