CLIMACT SA

Their core work

CLIMACT is a Belgian climate and energy modelling consultancy that builds quantitative scenario tools for policymakers, cities, and energy agencies planning their transition to climate neutrality. Their core output is prospective modelling — translating complex policy decisions into calculable pathways that show decision-makers the trade-offs between different decarbonisation strategies. They combine technical model development with capacity-building activities (peer-to-peer learning, webtools) so that non-specialist public authorities can actually use the results. Their work spans both EU-wide systemic analysis and city-level implementation planning.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

CLIMACT's trajectory shows a deliberate scale shift: their first project (EUCalc, 2016–2020) operated at EU and national level, mapping macro-level trade-offs toward low-carbon European societies with no recorded sub-national focus. Their second project (EUCITYCALC, 2021–2024) moved the same modelling logic down to the city level, adding multi-level governance, peer-to-peer learning, and webtool accessibility as explicit concerns. The evolution is not a change of discipline but a change of resolution — from continental systems analysis to municipal implementation support.

CLIMACT is moving toward making climate scenario modelling operable at the local government level, suggesting future work will increasingly sit at the intersection of prospective modelling, digital tools, and urban climate governance.

How they like to work

CLIMACT has participated in both a Research and Innovation Action and a Coordination and Support Action, indicating they contribute both technical modelling expertise and coordination/dissemination capacity depending on project need. With 25 unique partners across 15 countries across just two projects, they engage in mid-to-large European consortia rather than tight bilateral work. They have not led a project as coordinator, which suggests they position themselves as a specialised technical contributor rather than a project manager.

CLIMACT has built a network of 25 distinct consortium partners across 15 countries through only two projects — an unusually broad reach for a small SME, reflecting the pan-European nature of both calculators. Their network is distributed across Western and Northern Europe, consistent with energy transition policy communities in the EU.

What sets them apart

CLIMACT occupies a rare niche as a private SME that builds open, accessible modelling tools for public authorities — most energy scenario modelling sits inside universities or large consultancies, not in agile SMEs that can iterate tools across project cycles. Their combination of quantitative modelling depth and capacity-building for non-expert users (cities, energy agencies) makes them a bridge between research-grade analysis and practical policy use. For a consortium needing both a credible technical modelling partner and someone who can make the outputs usable by local governments, CLIMACT fills both roles.

Highlights from their portfolio

• EUCalc
  Their largest project by budget (EUR 670,406), delivering an EU-wide trade-off calculator for low-carbon pathways — a flagship open modelling tool for European climate policy.
• EUCITYCALC
  Extends the EU Calculator concept to city level with a public-facing webtool and peer-to-peer learning programme, demonstrating CLIMACT's ability to translate complex models into tools deployable by non-specialist public authorities.