CO2 PACMAN Tool

Which island will you choose to start the decarbonisation journey? Step into the role of a decision maker and select whether to begin with Brač (Croatia), Crete (Greece), or Elba (Italy). Each island has its own challenges and opportunities. Your mission is to design the right mix of policies and lead it towards climate neutrality. Are you ready to take on the challenge?

Explore the baseline emissions of your chosen island, calculated through its GHG Report. The coloured tiles show the total surface of forestland needed to uptake the GHG emissions. Knowledge is your starting point on the path to climate neutrality.

Select from a range of policies and behavioural changes. Each action makes some squares disappear, showing how much CO₂ is reduced or the uptake. When all remaining emissions are balanced by natural sinks or additional measures, your island achieves climate neutrality.

Forests are the main sector that removes CO₂ from the atmosphere. Discover how much they absorb, whether existing forests are enough, and if new trees are needed to reach climate neutrality.

The tiles are a visual unit of CO₂ equivalent emissions. They make complex data simple to understand:

• Each tile stands for a specified amount of CO₂ equivalent. The set of tiles occupies the space required for a forest to absorb the emitted CO₂.
• They let you "see" the impact of each policy.
• They help compare different decarbonization strategies.

A Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Report is the inventory of emissions and absorptions within a given territory. In the CO2 PACMAN project, each pilot island has its own GHG Report, using the IPCC Guidelines (2006, updated in 2019), one of the international standards for measuring greenhouse gas emissions and absorptions.

Not all greenhouse gases have the same impact. Methane (CH₄), nitrous oxide (N₂O) and other gases are more powerful than CO₂ in trapping heat in the atmosphere. To compare them, scientists use the Global Warming Potential (GWP), which expresses their effect over a specific time horizon (usually 100 years). This is why emissions are converted into a common unit: tonnes of CO₂ equivalent (tCO2eq). In practice, this means translating all gases into "how much CO₂ would have the same warming effect". System boundaries means that we look only at what happens, in this case inside the island, counting direct emissions within its territory.

Through the Tool, in Step 2, you can simulate 28 different decarbonisation strategies across multiple sectors:

Every policy choice immediately shows its impact on emissions and uptake, making the consequences of your decisions tangible. Among the strategies you can test are behavioural changes, renewable energies (including Blue Energy), sustainable mobility, circular economy solutions, and more efficient energy use in buildings.

At the end of your simulation, the CO2 PACMAN Tool provides a clear answer: Have your selected policies reduced emissions enough? Great job, you have reached Climate Neutrality. Are residual emissions fully compensated by natural absorption measures?

In Step 3 of the Tool you can see one of the three outcomes:

Forests and other green areas (e.g. perennial crops and urban green space) are unique because they don't just avoid emissions, they actively remove CO₂ from the atmosphere. By absorbing carbon, they help balance out what remains after reductions in energy, mobility, or waste. Understanding whether an island's forests are enough, or if new trees are needed, is crucial to close the gap to neutrality; you'll explore this in Step 4 of the Tool.

Your final outcome is a personalized recipe for decarbonisation, a pathway that can be compared, discussed, and improved collectively.

Because climate neutrality has to be reached with the citizens. Every small action adds up and helps to reduce GHG emissions of your community. When citizens, businesses, and public authorities cooperate, individual efforts become collective power.

Decarbonisation is not only about technology: it is about co-creation of a more sustainable future. Your choices inspire others, support better policies, and build resilient pathways towards a climate neutral future. In CO2 PACMAN, each island proves that everyone's contribution truly matters.

Both. The Tool uses playful visuals to engage users, but it is built on robust standard methodologies and on local data validated by research institutions and project partners.

Anyone. It is designed for students in schools and universities, decision-makers in local governments, small businesses, and citizens curious to understand how to reduce their environmental impact and by how much.

Islands are highly vulnerable to climate change (sea-level rise, extreme weather, energy dependency) but also an ideal test for innovative solutions. The Mediterranean islands act as living laboratories where strategies can be tested and then replicated elsewhere.

You can download the report to keep track of your simulation, compare it with others, or use it as a starting point for discussion in classrooms, community workshops, or policy meetings.

Yes. Although developed for islands, the methodology is adaptable to coastal areas and even cities across the Mediterranean and beyond. Replicability is at the heart of the project.