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 five 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.
Themes
Nutrient cycling
Non-CO2 greenhouse gas sources
ECE Nexus
Just and Feasible Transitions
Scenario Services and Scientific Software
Access to Energy Services
Heterogeneities and Inequalities
Finance
Modeling for National Transformations
Materials
Extreme Weather and Climate Dynamics
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
Response of the Earth System to overshoot, Climate neUtrality and negative Emissions (RESCUE)
Energy Demand changes Induced by Technological and Social innovations (EDITS)
Staff
Vered Blass
Senior Research Scholar (IACC, NMOD)
Maximilian Posch
Guest Research Scholar (PM)
Edgar Hertwich
Guest Senior Research Scholar (ECE)
Verena Rauchenwald
Researcher (IACC)
News
05 December 2024
Four distinguished scholars receive the IIASA Lifetime Achievement Award
This year, the award is granted to four researchers: Markus Amann, Joanne Linnerooth-Bayer, Sten Nilsson, and Sergei Scherbov, whose pioneering work has not only guided the global political discourse in the fields of demography, climate change, and the environment but also shaped IIASA as the international hub for systems analysis.
26 November 2024
Mapping the world's climate danger zones
With 2024 on track to be declared the hottest on record, scientists from IIASA and Columbia University have noticed that specific regions are consistently more affected by extreme temperatures. A new study provides the first worldwide map of these regional climate danger zones.
24 November 2024
IIASA at COP29: impressions and results
COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, came to an end after a bitter fight. Wealthy nations pledged to triple support to reach 300 billion Dollars per year by 2035. Developing countries said they needed 1.3 trillion Dollars. IIASA researchers also estimate the needs to reach trillions, not billions. Hence, a disappointing outcome, overshadowed by geopolitical tensions, according to IIASA’s experts.
Events
Focus
07 November 2024
COP29 in Baku is a Climate Finance COP: It’s about justice
At the COP in Baku, Azerbaijan, nation states must decide on a new climate finance regime, that will take effect from 2025. Studies show that by 2030, a sixfold increase in international financing is needed globally, for the needed mitigation investments alone. As tensions rise over who should pay, it will be difficult to achieve new and fair targets. Success is crucial to keep the Paris Agreement within reach.
04 November 2024
Overshooting 1.5°C is risky – that’s why we need to hedge our bets
In a new article published on The Conversation, Carl-Friedrich Schleussner, Gurav Ganti, and Joeri Rogelj discuss the urgent need to accelerate global emissions reductions to limit global warming to 1.5°C, cautioning against reliance on overshoot scenarios that assume temporary warming above 1.5°C, which may lead to irreversible climate impacts.
Publications
Washizu, A., Ju, Y., Yoshida, A., Tayama, M., & Amano, Y. (2024). Modeling the distributed energy resource aggregator services in a macroeconomic framework: The application to Japan. Energy 312 e133561. 10.1016/j.energy.2024.133561. Flechtner, S., Lich, U., & Pelz, S. (2024). Women’s decision-making power, cooking fuel adoption and appliance ownership: Evidence from Rwanda, Nepal and Honduras. Energy Research & Social Science 118 e103780. 10.1016/j.erss.2024.103780. Hirata, A., Ohashi, H., Hasegawa, T., Fujimori, S. , Takahashi, K., Tsuchiya, K., & Matsui, T. (2024). The choice of land-based climate change mitigation measures influences future global biodiversity loss. Communications Earth & Environment 5 (1) e259. 10.1038/s43247-024-01433-4. Jansakoo, T., Watanabe, R., Uetani, A., Sekizawa, S., Fujimori, S. , Hasegawa, T., & Oshiro, K. (2024). Comparison of global air pollution impacts across horizontal resolutions. Atmospheric Environment: X 24 e100303. 10.1016/j.aeaoa.2024.100303. Melaina, M.W., Lenox, C.S., Browning, M., McCollum, D., Bahn, O., & Ou, S. (2024). Modeling hydrogen markets: Energy system model development status and decarbonization scenario results. Energy and Climate Change 5 e100153. 10.1016/j.egycc.2024.100153.