The Energy, Climate, and Environment (ECE) Program will host the fifth MESSAGE Community Meeting in May 2026. The meeting brings together researchers working on integrated assessment and/or energy system modeling using open source software including MESSAGEix.
The MESSAGE Community Meeting brings together the worldwide community of researchers, users, and developers of IIASA's MESSAGEix modeling framework. During the meeting, community members:
- Share knowledge on modeling approaches and applications of the framework, including their latest research outcomes;
- Discuss best practices in model-based policy analysis and assessment;
- Identify opportunities for 1-to-1 and/or multi-lateral collaboration on topics of mutual interest;
- Reflect and learn on modeling experiences and areas for collective effort to improve model usability and impact.
The Community Meeting also aims to inform and inspire new users of the MESSAGEix framework on the range of available possibilities, and to link them with other users in order to help them begin or advance their modeling work.
The meeting will be held on Wednesday, 27 May 2026 from 08:30–17:00 CEST, and Thursday, 28 May from 08:30–13:00 CEST. The meeting will be in a hybrid format, with the possibility of attending in person or online, and details available to registered participants. On the first day, we warmly invite on-site participants to join a social dinner event. Participation is free of charge; however, please note that travel expenses for in-person participation must be covered by individual participants.
Registration has closed; for inquiries, contact Paul Natsuo Kishimoto (above).
On-site expenses for this year's Community Meeting are supported via the PRISMA project under its work package #1 on co-design, stakeholder engagement, and model usability.
Below is an outline of the current agenda.
Wednesday, 27 May
Day 1 runs from 08:30–17:00 CEST.
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Session 1: Methods in and with MESSAGE
- “Effectiveness of international climate finance through financing conditions for global decarbonization” —Yiyi Ju (IIASA)
- “Updates from the UBA Climate Action with Transparent Scenarios (CATS) project” —Niklas Roming, Lukas Eggert (DE Umweltbundesamt)
- “MESSAGE-GLOBIOM with MATLAB-Gurobi, or: How I learned to stop worrying about degeneracy in MESSAGE” —Takuya Hara (Toyota Central R&D Labs)
Session 2: National applications A
- “National models and scenarios in the Scenario Compass Initiative (SCI)” —Keywan Riahi (IIASA)
- “A Moldovan MESSAGEix model” —Natalia de Assis Brasil Weber (AFRY)
- “An integrated open-source modelling platform for assessing mitigation-adaptation goals for Pakistan” —Arfa Yaseen, Aleena Ahmad (LUMS, online)
Session 3: Hydrogen and CO₂ removal
- “Geological hydrogen in MESSAGEix: studying the potential of a resource that does not yet exist” —Luca Casamassima (IIASA)
- “The role of land- and ocean-based geochemical CO₂ removal pathways in climate mitigation” —Parisa Javadi (U. Virginia)
- “Towards sustainability-aware CDR deployment” —Di Sheng (IIASA)
Session 4: Climate and health impacts and drivers
- “Mental health impacts in climate change assessments” —Hassan Niazi (JGCRI-PNNL)
- “Integrating climate impacts in MESSAGE” —Vignesh Raghunathan (IIASA)
- “Digitalisation and AI impacts on energy transitions and climate targets” —Florian Maczek (IIASA)
Thursday, 28 May
Day 2 runs from 08:30–13:00 CEST, including lunch.
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Session 5: National applications B
- “Policies to reduce GHG emissions from the energy sector in Israel and integration of green hydrogen” —Ayelet Davidovitch, Noam Amit (Tel Aviv U.)
- “A Provincial-level Modeling Framework for Integrated Building Stock-Energy-Material-Carbon Assessment” —Fei Guo (Shandong U.)
- “Stranded fossil resources in the net-zero transition of China” —Wenji Zhou (Renmin U.)
Session 6: Sectoral analyses in buildings and transport
- “National calibration of MESSAGEix-Buildings: A Case Study for Israel’s Residential Sector” —Mali Nisnik (Archimedes Center)
- “Enhancing the MESSAGEix representation of the maritime sector” —Diogo Kramel (NTNU)
Upcoming Events
Hybrid: online and at the Austrian Academy of Sciences
Public lecture: Digitalization and AI within planetary boundaries
Chulalongkorn University, Thailand