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
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
Robert Sander
Research Software Developer (PM)
Edward Byers
Senior Research Scholar (IACC, S3)
Jared Lewis
Research Scholar (ECE)
Bas van Ruijven
Research Group Leader and Senior Research Scholar (S3); Senior Research Scholar (IACC, TISS)
News
31 May 2023
Quantifying Earth System Boundaries for a just world on a safe planet
IIASA researchers contributed to a new study in Nature, that for the first time presents quantifiable numbers and a solid scientific foundation to assess the state of our planetary health, not only regarding Earth System stability and resilience, but also in terms of human wellbeing and justice.
26 May 2023
President of the UN General Assembly visits IIASA
IIASA was honored to welcome a delegation from the Office of the President of the 77th UN General Assembly led by H.E. Ambassador Csaba Kőrösi earlier this week.
23 May 2023
Limiting global warming to 1.5°C would save billions from dangerously hot climate
According to a new study, current climate policies will leave more than a fifth of humanity exposed to dangerously hot temperatures by 2100.
Events
25 May 2023 Online
Tipping points webinar series: Education and Digitalisation
24 May 2023 Laxenburg, Austria (IIASA) and Online
MESSAGEix Community Meeting 2023
25 April 2023 Virtual
EAP 2023 Webinar: IPCC Climate Change Report - Perspectives from Authors
Focus
06 December 2022
Challenges and opportunities for a South American waterway system
Julian Hunt writes about the challenges and opportunities that the development of a South American Waterway System could bring to the region.
29 November 2022
Bridging the gap between science and policy
Options Magazine, Winter 2022: Leila Niamir is a computational economist and climate researcher driven by a passion for global change.
28 November 2022
Improving water-energy access in Central Asia
Options Magazine, Winter 2022: To help mitigate the water crisis in Central Asia, researchers devised a carbon-neutral and reliable regional strategy by building seasonal pumped storage plants in major rivers.
Publications
Tong, W., Lu, Z., Zhao, H., Han, M., Zhao, G., & Hunt, J. (2023). The structure and control strategies of hybrid solid gravity energy storage system. Journal of Energy Storage 67 e107570. 10.1016/j.est.2023.107570.
Liu, Q., Yang, J., Gao, L., Dong, Y., Guo, Z., Moallemi, E.A., Eker, S. , & Obersteiner, M. (2023). Robust sensitivity analysis to uncertainties in environmental and socio-economic scenarios: A perspective from a global socio-ecological system model. Journal of Cleaner Production 410 e137244. 10.1016/j.jclepro.2023.137244.
Trimmel, H., Hamer, P., Mayer, M., Schreier, S.F., Weihs, P., Eitzinger, J., Sandén, H., Fitzky, A.C., Richter, A., Calvet, J.-C., Bonan, B., Meurey, C., Vallejo, I., Eckhardt, S., Santos, G.S., Oumami, S., Arteta, J., Marécal, V., Tarrasón, L., Karl, T., & Rieder, H. (2023). The influence of vegetation drought stress on formaldehyde and ozone distributions over a central European city. Atmospheric Environment 304 e119768. 10.1016/j.atmosenv.2023.119768.
Ge, X., Yu, Q., Duan, L., Zhao, Y., Posch, M. , & Hao, J. (2023). High-resolution maps of critical loads for sulfur and nitrogen in China. Scientific Data 10 (1) e339. 10.1038/s41597-023-02178-z.
Rockström, J., Gupta, J., Qin, D., Lade, S.J., Abrams, J.F., Andersen, L.S., Armstrong McKay, D.I., Bai, X., Bala, G., Bunn, S.E., Ciobanu, D., DeClerck, F., Ebi, K., Gifford, L., Gordon, C., Hasan, S., Kanie, N., Lenton, T.M., Loriani, S., Liverman, D.M., Mohamed, A., Nakicenovic, N. , Obura, D., Ospina, D., Prodani, K., Rammelt, C., Sakschewski, B., Scholtens, J., Stewart-Koster, B., Tharammal, T., van Vuuren, D., Verburg, P.H., Winkelmann, R., Zimm, C. , Bennett, E.M., Bringezu, S., Broadgate, W., Green, P.A., Huang, L., Jacobson, L., Ndehedehe, C., Pedde, S., Rocha, J., Scheffer, M., Schulte-Uebbing, L., de Vries, W., Xiao, C., Xu, C., Xu, X., Zafra-Calvo, N., & Zhang, X. (2023). Safe and just Earth system boundaries. Nature 10.1038/s41586-023-06083-8.