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
Projects
Staff
News

22 November 2023
Mind the gap: caution needed when assessing land emissions in the COP28 Global Stocktake

21 November 2023
IIASA scientists contribute to a new UNEP report, emphasizing the need for urgent climate action

15 November 2023
IIASA researchers again ranked among the world's most cited
Events
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
11 December 2023 online AND the Japanese Pavilion at the COP28
EDITS at UNFCCC COP28: Demand-side solutions to disruptions
Focus
11 November 2023
Pursuing the urban utopia

11 November 2023
Empowerment through science

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)