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.
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The S3 Group have two overarching research objectives. First, to understand the evolution of behaviors and lifestyles around energy services and assess their environmental impacts; and second, to identify and understand policy interventions that can change behaviors and lifestyles to minimize environmental impacts. The group’s research binds together work on three domains that are critical for a transformation toward sustainable societies, namely buildings, mobility, and consumer goods, which are connected through changes in infrastructures and lifestyles. S3 aims to establish and lead a research community on demand-side transitions and to innovate conceptual frameworks for demand-side model comparisons.
Themes
Scenario Services and Scientific Software
Access to Energy Services
Finance
Models, tools, datasets
Model for Energy Supply Strategy Alternatives and their General Environmental Impact (MESSAGEix)
ENGAGE Scenario Explorer
NGFS-IIASA Scenario Explorer
AR6 Scenario Explorer and Database
Projects
Exploring National and Global Actions to reduce Greenhouse gas Emissions (ENGAGE)
Next generation of AdVanced InteGrated Assessment modelling to support climaTE policy making (NAVIGATE)
Energy Demand changes Induced by Technological and Social innovations (EDITS)
Sustainable development pathways achieving Human well-being while safeguarding the climate And Planet Earth (SHAPE)
Staff
Judy Xie
Research Intern (ECE, S3)
Alessio Mastrucci
Research Scholar (S3, TISS)
Sandeep Chowdhary
Research Scholar (S3)
Jihoon Min
Research Scholar (S3, TISS)
News
12 March 2024
Pioneering project investigating crisis effects on social systems wins FWF Emerging Fields Funding
The Austrian Science Fund (FWF) has awarded the Resilience and Malleability of Social Metabolism (REMASS) project funding of over six million euros for the next five years. This is an important milestone for this new field of research, which is being carried out by scientists from several Austrian institutions including IIASA.
29 February 2024
Improving energy security with policies focused on demand-side solutions
Energy systems essential to supporting our everyday activities face increasing threats from wars, pandemics, climate change, and other unexpected events. An international team of researchers found that demand-oriented solutions have a significantly greater potential to reduce our vulnerability to energy crises compared to supply measures.
06 December 2023
Pivotal moment for humanity as tipping point threats and opportunities accelerate
The world has reached a pivotal moment as threats from Earth system tipping points – and progress towards positive tipping points – accelerate. The just released Global Tipping Points Report – the most comprehensive assessment of tipping points ever conducted – highlights that humanity is currently on a disastrous trajectory.
Events
Vienna, Austria and online
IIASA at EGU 2024
Focus
21 December 2023
High wellbeing with low energy demand towards modern net-zero cities
Following the International Vienna Energy and Climate Forum in November 2023, IIASA researcher Benigna Boza-Kiss reflects on the contribution from the IIASA EDITS project team to this conference, which brought together experts from various disciplines to discuss multi-faceted energy demand in cities like Vienna.
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
Oshiro, K. & Fujimori, S. (2024). Mid-century net-zero emissions pathways for Japan: Potential roles of global mitigation scenarios in informing national decarbonization strategies. Energy and Climate Change 5 e100128. 10.1016/j.egycc.2024.100128. Fiander, J., Walker, C., Rowlands, I.H., Devine-Wright, P., Wilson, C. , Soutar, I., & Gupta, R. (2024). Energy democracy, public participation, and support for local energy system change in Canada. Energy Research & Social Science 113 e103526. 10.1016/j.erss.2024.103526. de Assis Brasil Weber, N., Hunt, J. , Zakeri, B. , Smith Schneider, P., Asfor Parente, F.S., Delavald Marques, A., & Olímpio Pereira Junior, A. (2024). Seasonal pumped hydropower storage role in responding to climate change impacts on the Brazilian electrical sector. Journal of Energy Storage 87 e111249. 10.1016/j.est.2024.111249. Gaupp, F. & Eker, S. (2024). Climate Activism, Social Media and Behavioural Change: A Literature Review. IIASA Working Paper. Laxenburg, Austria: WP-24-007 Waidelich, P., Batibeniz, F., Rising, J., Kikstra, J.S. , & Seneviratne, S.I. (2024). Climate damage projections beyond annual temperature. Nature Climate Change 10.1038/s41558-024-01990-8. (In Press)