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In a new article just published in The Conversation, IIASA researcher Caroline Zimm, Steven R. Smith and Tim Lenton shed light on the domino effect of positive tipping points and offer insights into the demanding legwork required to catalyze the widespread sustainable transformations outlined in the landmark Global Tipping Points Report recently launched at COP28 in Dubai.

Several IIASA researchers provided valuable input and presented workshops at the North Africa Applied Systems Analysis Center's Diploma Program earlier this year. IIASA researcher Ali Kharrazi shares his insights from this impactful engagement.

In a world where climate action is often framed as a sacrifice, the authors of this article in The Conversation challenges conventional thinking, offering a fresh perspective that views the transition to renewable energy as a tipping game, and highlighting the potential economic benefits and immediate health improvements associated with such a shift.

The newly established International Vienna Energy and Climate Forum provided an opportunity to discuss best practices and present solutions to tackle climate change and achieve a green energy transition. Hossein Hassani and Nadejda Komendantova share their insights from a fireside chat at the event that focused on the role of young people in clean energy transitions.

The most recent instalment of the IIASA Connect Coffee Talk series brought together the institute’s Communications Manager Ansa Heyl, the Head of Communications for the Scientific Advice Mechanism to the European Commission (SAPEA) Toby Wardman, and a participant in the North Africa Applied Systems Analysis Center (NAASAC) Mai Mostafa Awad to discuss their experiences in communicating science to inform policy.

Using the journey of chocolate, from the sun-drenched cocoa plantations to the sweet bars that we all know and love, IIASA researchers Ali Kharrazi and Zuelclady Araujo Gutierrez recently guided a group of young learners through the practical applications of systems thinking and life-cycle analysis in our everyday lives.

Managing land for agriculture has shaped civilization, but it has also led to biodiversity decline and other problems that today threaten the future of humanity. The EU Horizon 2020 FRAMEwork project is supporting a transition to biodiversity sensitive farming by uniting farmer clusters and citizen observatories to protect sensitive ecosystems while ensuring food security.

IIASA researchers Teresa Deubelli-Hwang and Jung Hee Hyun share insights from a decade of collaborating on fostering flood resilience in communities around the world following a recent Zurich Flood Resilience Alliance learning event.  

Africa has great potential for the implementation of hydropower, but there are political and environmental concerns that planners must consider if they want to ensure a more reliable power supply for their citizens. IIASA researcher Giacomo Falchetta delved into this issue in an article recently published on The Conversation.

Reihaneh Bandari writes about how a collaborative team from Deakin University, Monash University, and local community members tackled water resource decline and agricultural challenges in the Goulburn-Murray region of Australia using co-production principles to set the stage for lasting dialogue and local solutions.

Mai Awad reflects on her participation in the North Africa Applied Systems Analysis Center (NAASAC) Applied Systems Analysis Diploma and how this has transformed her mindset around how systems thinking can empower decision makers to tackle complex global challenges and design impactful policy solutions for a better tomorrow.

Scorching temperatures have put millions of Americans in danger this summer, with heat extremes stretching from coast to coast in the Southern US. IIASA researcher Giacomo Falcetta and colleagues from Boston University looked into this issue in an article recently published on The Conversation.

2023 IIASA Young Scientists Summer Program participant, Jalal Awan, explains how reframing artificial intelligence as a common good co-created by global users and stakeholders could help harness its transformative power for the benefit of all.  

IIASA researchers Juliana Arbelaez-Gaviria and Eleanor Warren-Thomas have coauthored a new policy brief published with the Colombia team of the Food, Agriculture, Biodiversity, Land, and Energy (FABLE) Consortium, an initiative under the Food and Land Use Coalition (FOLU) and part of the UN Sustainable Development and Solutions Network (UNSDSN). The brief outlines how deforestation and ecological restoration in Colombia may impact carbon, biodiversity, and agricultural production by 2030.

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.

IIASA researchers and colleagues from Plan International are using modern digital tools to enhance community-driven flood resilience in rural flood-prone communities in Nicaragua.

What would Vienna look like without migrants, and what kind of socioeconomic implications would such a situation have? IIASA researchers Anne Goujon and Thomas Schinko delved into these questions in response to a recent public debate on the topic.

Co-production is a term that has been cropping up more and more in discussions about public involvement and is fast becoming an integral feature of many research processes and proposals. Susanne Hanger-Kopp explains why not every project can or should include elements of co-production and how to make the most of such processes when they are used.

IIASA researcher Richard Cornford and colleagues discuss the need for urgent action to stop biodiversity declines, and caution that ambitious targets to stop these declines by 2030 may already be slipping out of reach, in an article just published in The Conversation.  

Everybody’s talking about ChatGPT. The artificial intelligence chatbot, developed by private company OpenAI, allows a user to generate content. It can create poems, articles, short stories, and even jokes. How can researchers benefit from this seemingly revolutionary tool? And why has it sparked controversies, particularly among the scientific community?