Press releases

People in informal settlements, urban deprived areas, refugee camps, prisons, and war zones can be particularly vulnerable to climate threats and natural hazards. A new study, led by IIASA researchers, explores how policymakers can ease their burden.

In a new study, IIASA scientists show that a mix of policy measures, including both technological solutions and behavioral changes, can significantly reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from energy use in buildings and transport.

A new IIASA study shows why gender equality trends should be central when planning how societies adapt to and mitigate climate change. A society where women have little access to decision-making or finance or have less education, will be ill-equipped to find and implement solutions, ranging from concrete measures like irrigation or crop rotation, to behavior shifts and engineering the energy transition. We need to ask the “what-if” questions related to progress towards equality or deterioration of inequality. One thing is clear: gender inequality will have a high price if neglected.

Citizen science and artificial intelligence (AI) offer immense potential for tackling urgent sustainability challenges, from health to climate change. Combined, they offer innovative solutions to accelerate progress on the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). IIASA researchers explored the synergies between citizen science and AI, specifically highlighting how the integration of citizen science data and approaches into AI can enhance sustainable development monitoring and achievement while mitigating AI risks.

As global demand for raw materials intensifies due to the material needs of digitalization and decarbonization, the new MINE-THE-GAP project aims to address a critical knowledge gap in mining's environmental and social impacts by creating scalable, reliable mining indicators using advanced satellite data and artificial intelligence (AI).

With 2024 on track to be declared the hottest on record, scientists from IIASA and Columbia University have noticed that specific regions are consistently more affected by extreme temperatures. A new study provides the first worldwide map of these regional climate danger zones.

New research reveals a strong link between higher female education and lower fertility rates in sub-Saharan Africa. Educated women are driving a shift toward smaller families and even influencing less educated peers. This new forecasting model offers policymakers valuable insights into how women's education shapes population trends, aiding sustainable development efforts.

Sustainable lifestyles, green-tech innovation, and government-led transformation each offer promising routes to make significant progress towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Agreement, according to a new study by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), to which IIASA scientists contributed. Contrary to the belief that the path to sustainable development is increasingly out of reach, the results show that humankind has a variety of pathways to depart from its current unsustainable trajectory.

Governments worldwide must urgently commit to reducing annual greenhouse gas emissions by 42% by 2030 and 57% by 2035 in their next Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to avoid surpassing the Paris Agreement’s 1.5°C global warming target, warns a new report released by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) today.