A systems approach  

At its core, SEVEN’s approach is concerned with understanding why well-intentioned climate solutions so often fail to deliver lasting impact, and with using that understanding to identify where change is possible. Promising technologies, policies, or initiatives may stall, remain marginal, or generate unintended trade-offs when they interact with existing economic, social, legal, or institutional structures. 

Our work is grounded in a systems approach to climate change explicitly oriented towards action. Together with our partners, we first define the system being addressed and its boundaries. This understanding is then used to develop conceptual representations of key dynamics and relationships within a system, and to explore how different interventions might interact with them. 

On that basis, together with our partners, we identify leverage points and develop solution directions and practical interventions that are grounded in this system analysis and responsive to the needs and capacities of societal actors.  

Self-reinforcing dynamics 

A central insight guiding SEVEN’s work is that systemic barriers are often maintained by self-reinforcing dynamics. At the same time, these dynamics also point to leverage points for change. By analysing how systems are structured and how different elements interact, SEVEN seeks to identify where targeted interventions can disrupt lock-in, weaken stabilising forces, or open up alternative pathways.  

In addition to barriers, SEVEN also pays attention to enabling conditions: features of a system that do not produce change on their own but strongly influence whether interventions can gain traction.