Press releases

In 2023, India surpassed China as the most populous country in the world, and is likely to retain this status for the remainder of this century. In a recent study, IIASA researchers explored whether India could also surpass China in terms of broader socio-economic potential, given the country’s rapid economic growth in recent decades.

New research led by IIASA reveals a surprising link between two major climate tipping elements: the Southern Amazon rainforest and the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). While the study finds that a weakening AMOC may buffer dry season rainfall loss in the Amazon, it also highlights the urgent need to reduce emissions as broader climate risks continue to escalate.

Trees, shrubs, and other plants along roads and sidewalks play an important role in making cities more resilient to climate change, improving public health, and advancing environmental justice. Yet, tracking its distribution and change over time remains a major challenge – especially across large, rapidly urbanizing regions of the world. A new IIASA-led study addresses this gap.

Forests play an essential role in mitigating climate change and conserving biodiversity. As Europe moves forward on its climate and sustainability journey, it is crucial that forest-related policies and management practices evolve to fully support these goals.

New research highlights that mountain glaciers across the globe will not recover for centuries – even if human intervention cools the planet back to the 1.5°C limit, having exceeded it.

With climate change intensifying and billions of people still lacking basic necessities, addressing both challenges simultaneously is not only possible but essential. New research highlights that meeting global climate targets while ensuring decent living standards for all can be achieved, provided that emissions reductions are implemented quickly and decisively.

The intensification of existing farmland can sometimes be more harmful to local biodiversity than expanding the area covered by agricultural land, according to new research just published in Nature Ecology and Evolution.

Wealthy individuals have a higher carbon footprint. A new study published in Nature Climate Change quantifies the climate outcomes of these inequalities. It finds that the world’s wealthiest 10% are responsible for two thirds of observed global warming since 1990 and the resulting increases in climate extremes such as heatwaves and droughts.

Can nature restoration and economic productivity go hand in hand? A new study finds that the EU’s ambitious Nature Restoration Regulation (NRR) is essential to achieving biodiversity conservation and climate mitigation targets and that it could be implemented without compromising the supply of agricultural and forest products.