ECE’s overarching vision is to provide evidence-based, scientific roadmaps for feasible systems transformations that simultaneously meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and ambitious climate change mitigation targets.
Emphasis is placed specifically on local policy decisions and actions required in the short term to put the world on track to achieve long-term targets while assuring human health, wellbeing, and the reduction of social inequalities in a socially and economically sustainable manner. The program’s systems analytical tools enable it to act as an objective scientific broker in support of sustainable transformational processes. ECE combines the research portfolios of the former Air Quality and Greenhouse Gases, Energy, and Transitions to New Technologies programs.
The ECE program is organized in four Research Groups which encompass different thematic areas of research:
ECE Research Groups
Integrated Assessment and Climate Change (IACC)
The IACC Group leads the development of tools for a new generation of “coupled” global transformation pathways that are able to represent bottom-up local constraints and opportunities at the national and sub-national scale, which is a major focus of the ECE Program.
Pollution Management (PM)
The PM Group focusses on solving immediate and near-term environmental (health and ecosystems impacts from pollution), climate (non-CO2 greenhouse gases), and social (widening inequality gaps) problems in a cost-effective way, providing support to policymaking at local and regional scales.
Sustainable Service Systems (S3)
The S3 Group focuses on demand-side systems as entry points for sustainable transformations. The group analyses demand for energy and materials through the lens of service provision of mobility, shelter, and consumer goods, as well as how lifestyle changes can contribute to consumption reduction.
Transformative Institutional and Social Solutions (TISS)
The TISS Group explores innovative solutions to environmental issues that integrate social, institutional, and governance drivers with technological and economic considerations, with an emphasis on improving conditions for the most deprived and marginalized in society.
Current ECE Research Themes
Young Scientists Summer Program
Models, tools, datasets
Model for Energy Supply Strategy Alternatives and their General Environmental Impact (MESSAGEix)
The NExus Solutions Tool (NEST)
AR6 Scenario Explorer and Database
Greenhouse Gas and Air Pollution Interactions and Synergies (GAINS)
Projects
Energy Demand changes Induced by Technological and Social innovations (EDITS)
Response of the Earth System to overshoot, Climate neUtrality and negative Emissions (RESCUE)
Staff
Benigna Boza-Kiss
Research Scholar (S3, TISS)
Paul Kishimoto
Research Scholar (IACC, S3)
Gamze Ünlü
Researcher (IACC, TISS)
Fridolin Glatter
Research Software Programmer and MESSAGEix Community Officer (IACC)
News
22 November 2023
Mind the gap: caution needed when assessing land emissions in the COP28 Global Stocktake
The land use, land use change, and forestry sector plays a strong role in achieving global climate targets, but a gap exists between how scientists and countries account for its emissions. A new study highlights how mitigation benchmarks change when assessing IPCC scenarios from a national inventory perspective, with net-zero timings arriving up to five years earlier and cumulative emissions to net-zero being 15-18% smaller.
21 November 2023
IIASA scientists contribute to a new UNEP report, emphasizing the need for urgent climate action
As global temperatures break records, the latest UNEP Emissions Gap Report finds that current pledges under the Paris Agreement put the world on track for a 2.5-2.9°C temperature rise above pre-industrial levels this century, pointing to the urgent need for increased climate action.
15 November 2023
IIASA researchers again ranked among the world's most cited
IIASA is proud to announce that nine researchers associated with the institute have been recognized in the 2023 Highly Cited Researchers™ list by Clarivate.
Events
28 November 2023 Online
Tipping points webinar series: Economics view of tipping points
14 November 2023 Hilton Molino Stucky, Venice, Italy
IIASA at the Sixteenth IAMC Annual Meeting 2023
07 November 2023 Online
Tipping points webinar series: Methane: possible tipping points or surprises
Focus
11 November 2023
Pursuing the urban utopia
Options Magazine, Winter 2023: As cities draw in more and more people, the challenges and opportunities posed by urbanization are ever-increasing. How can we make sure that the cities of tomorrow will serve both people and the planet?
11 November 2023
Empowerment through science
Options Magazine, Winter 2023: IIASA Transformative Institutional and Social Solutions Research Group Leader, Shonali Pachauri, explores policy pathways for achieving universal access to basic services and technologies. She was a lead author of the Working Group III contribution to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)’s Sixth Assessment Report (AR6), and a member of the Extended Writing Team for the Synthesis Report.
Publications
Mir, K.A., Purohit, P. , Ijaz, M., Babar, Z.B., & Mehmood, S. (2024). Black carbon emissions inventory and scenario analysis for Pakistan. Environmental Pollution 340 e122745. 10.1016/j.envpol.2023.122745. Hunt, J. , Lagore, B., Brandão, R., Diuana, F.A., Quaranta, E., de Miranda, M., Lacorte, A., Barbosa, P.S., de Freitas, M.A.V., Zakeri, B. , Castro, N.J., & Wada, Y. (2023). Mapping the potential for pumped storage using existing lower reservoirs. Journal of Energy Storage 73 e109047. 10.1016/j.est.2023.109047. Chen, S., Lu, X., Nielsen, C., McElroy, M., He, G., Zhang, S. , He, K., Yang, X., Zhang, F., & Hao, J. (2023). Deploying solar photovoltaic energy first in carbon-intensive regions brings gigatons more carbon mitigations to 2060. Communications Earth & Environment 4 (1) e369. 10.1038/s43247-023-01006-x. Hunt, J. , Nascimento, A., Tong, W., Zakeri, B., Jurasz, J., Patro, E., Ðurin, B., de Jesus Pacheco, D.A., de Freitas, M.A.V., Filho, W.L., & Wada, Y. (2023). Perpetual motion electric truck, transporting cargo with zero fuel costs. Journal of Energy Storage 72 e108671. 10.1016/j.est.2023.108671. Gidden, M. , Gasser, T. , Grassi, G., Forsell, N., Janssens, I., Lamb, W., Minx, J., Nicholls, Z. , Steinhauser, J. , & Riahi, K. (2023). Aligning climate scenarios to emissions inventories shifts global benchmarks. Nature 10.1038/s41586-023-06724-y. (In Press)