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A new IIASA-led study for the first time maps safe areas that can practically be used for underground carbon storage, and estimates that using them all would only cut warming by 0.7°C. The result is almost ten times lower than previous estimates of around 6°C, which considered the total global potential for geological storage, including in risky zones, where storing carbon could trigger earthquakes and contaminate drinking water supplies. The study shows geological storage is a scarce, finite resource and warn countries must use it in a highly targeted way.

As global temperatures approach the 1.5°C threshold, understanding the risks of climate overshoot has become an urgent scientific and policy challenge. From 30 September to 2 October 2025, IIASA will host the first-ever Overshoot Conference at the conference center in Laxenburg, Austria, offering a space for interdisciplinary dialogue among researchers, communicators, and policymakers.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has announced the author teams for its Seventh Assessment Report (AR7). With three Coordinating Lead Authors and eleven Lead Authors across all three IPCC Working Groups, IIASA experts will play a key part in delivering the best available knowledge to guide effective, equitable, and urgently needed climate action over the coming decade.

An article on Austrian news platform VOL.at highlights how a lecture by IIASA Director-General Hans Joachim (John) Schellnhuber has inspired an ambitious tree-planting initiative in Rankweil, Vorarlberg. The project aims to link every newborn child to a concrete contribution to climate protection through large-scale afforestation and timber-based construction.

IIASA senior scientist Gregor Kiesewetter, along with fellow IIASA researchers Fabian Wagner and Laura Warnecke, are among the authors of an article recognized as winning National Champion for the United Kingdom in the 3rd edition of the Frontiers Planet Prize.

As countries around the world work to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, a new study by researchers from IIASA and Peking University highlights an overlooked but powerful solution hiding in plain sight: fluorocarbon banks.

Climate-related wildfires are once again making headlines as they rage across the northern hemisphere this summer. New IIASA research shows that addressing social and economic vulnerability across countries will be a key factor in mitigating the scale of resulting financial damage and emphasize sustainable development as essential to reducing climate-related impacts.

Mining in Brazil does not deliver the sustained economic benefits often claimed, while informal mining is a major driver of deforestation, especially in the Amazon. A new study offers one of the most comprehensive assessments to date, combining satellite imagery and economic data to analyze the environmental and economic impacts of mining at the municipal scale across Brazil.

In a new joint paper, IIASA researchers introduce five Priority Action Areas to guide the EU’s path beyond 2027, highlighting the vital role of a sustainable agricultural sector in ensuring the EU’s long-term economic resilience, prosperity, competitiveness, and environmental health.

IIASA researchers joined experts from around the world in Rome for the Forest Sector Outlook Study 2030 and 2050 Scenario Design Workshop to support the development of long-term scenarios for sustainable forest use, restoration, and the forest-based bioeconomy. This initiative aims to inform forest policy planning through science-based modeling.

IIASA Deputy Director General, Karen Lips, recently traveled to West Africa on a mission to strengthen existing ties and build new partnerships aimed at advancing collaborative research and policy engagement across the continent. Her journey took her to Ghana and Ivory Coast, reflecting IIASA’s deepening commitment to supporting sustainable development in Africa through scientific cooperation.

A new policy brief, produced as part of the LAMASUS project, highlights that strategic agricultural de-intensification in the EU could help reduce agricultural carbon emissions by nearly a third and considerably improve biodiversity recovery.

The 2025 edition of INQUIMUS themed “Centering Justice in Climate Risk Management for Transformative Change” will take place from 2–4 December 2025, at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Laxenburg, Austria. 

Working with the Government of Uttar Pradesh, India, and the World Bank, researchers from the IIASA Pollution Management Research Group helped develop a forward-looking clean air strategy for the Uttar Pradesh state of India, based on air quality levels, trends, and prominent pollution sources.

Air pollution has become the leading health risk in Nepal, contributing to around 26,000 premature deaths each year. IIASA researchers provided scientific tools and analysis for a new World Bank report presenting the country’s first comprehensive clean air plan to address the problem.

Northern peatlands could seriously complicate efforts to cool the planet, especially after a temporary overshoot of the 1.5°C global warming limit, according to new IIASA-led research.

Earth’s carbon-climate system may be more fragile than widely thought, according to a new IIASA-led study that looks at the planet’s response to human pressures from a planetary perspective.

IIASA is pleased to announce that 36 of its researchers and alumni have been featured in the 2025 edition of the Research.com Top Scientists ranking, highlighting the Institute’s continued excellence across a range of disciplines.

In 2023, India surpassed China as the most populous country in the world, and is likely to retain this status for the remainder of this century. In a recent study, IIASA researchers explored whether India could also surpass China in terms of broader socio-economic potential, given the country’s rapid economic growth in recent decades.

IIASA CAT-ASA scientists Nadejda Komendantova, Tatiana Ermolieva, and Taher Zobeidi jointly with PARATUS case study teams from Istanbul (Turkey), Bucharest (Romania), Barcelona (Spain), are excited to share a short summary of their joint work on "Systemic risks, vulnerability analysis and integrated disaster risk management for disaster resilient societies" in the frames of the WP2, Task 2.2. of the PARATUS project.