Decades of insufficient action (despite multiple scientific warnings) have heightened risks of irreversible tipping points in the Earth systems. Urgent and critical actions are needed to avert societal collapse. Phase-2 of the Transformations within Reach (TwR) is intended to provide an action-oriented synthesis for catalyzing societal transformations toward sustainability.
The Transformations within Reach (TwR-I) initiative was first launched in early 2020 as a joint initiative between the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) and the International Science Council (ISC) under the heading Consultative Science Platform: Bouncing Forward Sustainably: Pathways to a post-COVID-19 world with the objective to glean lessons from the COVID-19 crisis for the future of society. The initiative brought together over 200 experts from various disciplines and every region of the world through a series of consultations in order to provide recommendations on what should be done to move towards a more sustainable world that would be more prepared for negative shocks. TwR-I produced a synthesis and four thematic reports which were widely disseminated.
Building on the success of and positive response to TwR-I, IIASA launched TwR-II which continues to work with the community of scientists and practitioners operating under the guidance by the Advisory Board chaired by the former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and Chair of The Elders, H.E. Mary Robinson and the patronage of Ban Ki-Moon, the 8th Secretary-General of the United Nations (2007-2016).
TwR-II asserts that the key to sustainability transformation is a better societal decision-making and governance systems. Therefore, TwR-II aims to put forward recommendations on how decision-making systems and processes can be improved to catalyze sustainability transformations and identify effective levers of change for this.
PUBLICATIONS
Patil, P. , Rovenskaya, E. , Gomez Echeverri, L., Fath, B. , & van Jaarsveld, A. (2025). Transformational Pathways to Sustainability Through Polycrisis. In: Pathways to Sustainability: Collaborative Solutions for a Resilient Future. Eds. Killeen, T.L., Wuebbles, D.J., & Lane, J.E., University of Illinois. ISBN 978-0-252-089077
Patil, P. (2024). Human Agency to Navigate the Anthropocene. In: UNDP launch of the Human Development Report 2023-2024, 17 September 2024.
Patil, P. (2024). Social-ecological security framework. In: UN Science Summit 2024, 10-27 September 2024.
Patil, P. & Rovenskaya, E. (2024). Agency for Sustainable Development: Shaping Our Future in a Transforming World. UNDP Human Development Report Office
Gomez Echeverri, L., Groff, M., Hackmann, H., Lopes, M.A., Monga, P., Patil, P. , Rovenskaya, E. , & Saran, S. (2024). Toward a New Global Security Paradigm. Task Force 06: Strengthening Multilateralism and Global Governance. T20 Policy Brief. Observer Research Foundation , New Delhi, India.
Rovenskaya, E. , Gomez Echeverri, L., & Patil, P. (2023). Human development, sustainability, and agency. IIASA Science for Society Brief. Laxenburg, Austria: SB-01
van Jaarsveld, A., Rovenskaya, E. , & Sachs, J. (2023). Making Transformation Happen: Climate Finance. Policy paper for G20. IIASA Report. Laxenburg: IIASA
van Jaarsveld, A., Rovenskaya, E. , & Sachs, J. (2023). Effective Health Care and Global Pandemic Preparedness. Policy paper for G20. IIASA Report. Laxenburg: IIASA
van Jaarsveld, A., Rovenskaya, E. , & Sachs, J. (2023). Strengthening WTO and the Global Trade System for Sustainable Development. Policy paper for G20. IIASA Report. Laxenburg: IIASA
van Jaarsveld, A., Rovenskaya, E. , & Sachs, J. (2023). Strengthening the UN to Confront Collective Challenges. Policy paper for G20. IIASA Report. Laxenburg: IIASA
Sperling, F., Havlik, P. , Denis, M., Valin, H. , Palazzo, A. , Gaupp, F., & Visconti, P. (2022). Toward resilient food systems after COVID-19. Current Research in Environmental Sustainability 4 e100110. 10.1016/j.crsust.2021.100110.
Żebrowski, P. , Dieckmann, U. , Brännström, Å., Franklin, O. , & Rovenskaya, E. (2022). Sharing the Burdens of Climate Mitigation and Adaptation: Incorporating Fairness Perspectives into Policy Optimization Models. Sustainability 14 (7) e3737. 10.3390/su14073737.
Komendantova, N. , Neumueller, S., & Nkoana, E. (2022). Co-creating Policies on Societal Transformations as a Factor of Resilience of Modern Society. In: Energy Transition in the Baltic Sea Region: Understanding Stakeholder Engagement and Community Acceptance. Eds. Karimi, F. & Rodi, M., Routledge. ISBN 9781032003085
Gluckman, P., Quirion, R., Sachs, J., & van Jaarsveld, A.S. (2022). Scientific diplomacy keeps reason alight in dark times. Nature 604 (7906) p. 425. 10.1038/d41586-022-01060-z.
Zakeri, B. , Paulavets, K., Barreto-Gomez, L., Gomez Echeverri, L., Pachauri, S. , Boza-Kiss, B. , Zimm, C. , Rogelj, J. , Creutzig, F., Ürge-Vorsatz, D., Victor, D., Bazilian, M., Fritz, S. , Gielen, D., McCollum, D., Srivastava, L., Hunt, J. , & Pouya, S. (2022). Pandemic, War, and Global Energy Transitions. Energies 15 (17) e6114. 10.3390/en15176114.
Patil, P. (2022). Transformations Within Reach: Synchronizing Resilience and Agility for Sustainable Development (TwR). In: Systems Analysis for Reducing Footprints and Enhancing Resilience, 16-17 November, 2022, Vienna, Austria.
Patil, P. , Rovenskaya, E. , Srivastava, L., Gomez Echeverri, L., & Fath, B. (2022). First Background Paper for Transformations within Reach (Phase-2). Framework for Catalyzing Societal Transformations. IIASA , Laxenburg.
Patil, P. (2022). A case and orientations for systemic transformations. In: 14th conference of the European Society for Ecological Economics, 14-17 June 2022, Pisa, Italy.
News
28 July 2023
Strengthening Synergistic Actions towards SDGs through the Lens of Systems Analysis
Solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges need not focus on one outcome but synergize benefits across to achieve multiple benefits. Tackling multiple problems using the same interventions can not only be cost-effective but can also help to align short-term benefits with longer-term transformations. However, synergistic solutions require a wholistic understanding of the context and environment. At Advancing Systems Analysis (ASA), each project strives toward integrating a systems approach which help to derive synergistic benefits.
14 July 2023
People and Patterns: IIASA-CSER joint consultation on mitigating the global risks
Researchers from Cambridge University’s Centre for the Study of Existential Risk (CSER) visited the IIASA on 11th and 12th July to explore tools that take a whole systems approach to the global risks we face.
03 July 2023
The science activist: should science get political?
For science to become more value-neutral and less biased, it needs to question existing social norms and transcend the status quo, writes Pratik Patil, a researcher in the Advancing Systems Analysis Program and a member of the Transformations within Reach initiative coordination team.
Events
Virtual consultation
Special consultation of TwR Community of Science and Practice (CoSP)
Online and Austrian Academy of Sciences (Doktor-Ignaz-Seipel-Platz 2, Vienna)