Researchers at IIASA are studying the direct and indirect effects of climate change on health, shedding light on healthy aging drivers and metrics and analyzing interconnections between the components of multi-dimensional national well-being.
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Links Between Climate Change, the Environment, and Health
Researchers across IIASA are exploring how a variety of climate hazards and stressors are affecting health, including wildfires in the Fire&Ice project and heat extremes in the DISCC-AT and SPARCCLE projects.
Another area of study is on air pollution and its effects on mortality and morbidity, including health co-benefits of climate mitigation, with the GAINS model, and contributions to the Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change.
Researchers are also studying the effects of urban infrastructure and green spaces on health, including how they can mitigate or amplify climate-health effects, through the Urban Releaf project.
In addition, the CLIMAKID project will provide a digital tool to causally link extreme weather and child undernutrition in Sub-Saharan Africa and India to global climate change.
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One Health
The project bloom brings together an interdisciplinary team to explore the complex relationships between biodiversity, land use, and zoonotic disease spillover risk in West Africa. By integrating expertise in ecosystem function, socioeconomics, modeling, and stakeholder engagement, the project enhances understanding of these dynamics, with the aim to inform policies and conservation strategies that promote both human and ecosystem well-being.
As part of the SWITCH and CHOICE projects, researchers are developing the GLOBIOM health module, which links health impacts to dietary patterns. Additionally, the FACE Africa project explored how climate change indirectly affects nutrition and food availability through changes in crop production and land use.
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Health Systems
Health systems play an important role in reducing climate risks on health. However, they are also vulnerable to extreme weather events which can affect their capacity to deliver health services. Researchers are examining how floods and heatwaves affect the provision of and access to routine maternal and child healthcare in the REACH project.
Examining the macro-economic consequences of health-related shocks is a further area of focus.
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Ageing, Cognition, and Wellbeing
IIASA researchers are developing global measures of healthy aging and wellbeing, and exploring how factors like employment, family roles and environmental exposures, shape cognitive health over the life course, in the CHIAS project.
IIASA researchers also apply systems thinking to study multi-dimensional national well-being, with the identified theoretical relationships being validated and quantified using data for the OECD countries.
News
28 May 2026
Nexus of Sustainability: Springer monograph devoted to joint IIASA and Ukraine NMO project
Nexus of Sustainability: Understanding of FEWSE Systems II is a 2026 Springer monograph detailing the interdependencies between food, energy, water, society, and the environment (FEWSE). It focuses on risk management, robust modeling, and sustainable development, featuring recent research of the joint research project between IIASA and National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (NASU, Ukraine NMO at IIASA) on “Integrated modeling for robust management of food-energy-water-land use nexus for sustainable development”.
28 May 2026
CAT contributes to Expert Round Table on Climate Misinformation under MIP4Adapt
Researchers from the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) contributed to the Expert Round Table on Climate Misinformation, organized within the framework of the MIP4Adapt initiative. MIP4Adapt (Mission Implementation Platform) is the central support mechanism for the EU Mission on Adaptation to Climate Change, aiding regions and local authorities in planning and implementing climate resilience strategies. It provides technical assistance, community building, and funding guidance to Charter signatories.
05 May 2026
Amazon understory forests show short-term boost in CO₂ uptake – but this comes at a cost
Tropical forests are one of the planet's most important carbon sinks – often also called "the lungs of the Earth". But their future in a high-CO₂ world remains uncertain. IIASA researchers contributed to a new study, which suggests even small understory trees in the Amazon may initially buffer climate change more strongly. Their long-term capacity to store carbon could, however, be restricted by nutrient availability, highlighting the vulnerability of these ecosystems under future climate conditions.