IIASA and RITE co-organized an expert meeting in the framework of the Energy Demand changes Induced by Technological and Social innovations (EDITS) network to further the interdisciplinary dialogue in conceptualizing, analyzing, policy making, and modeling of energy demand and its interlinkages to climate change mitigation and the SDGs.
Despite successes in reducing poverty globally in the last two decades, almost one billion people are still living without access to reliable and affordable electricity, which in turn negatively affects health and welfare, and impedes sustainable development. Knowing where these people are is crucial if aid and infrastructure are to reach them. A new IIASA-led study proposes a novel method to estimate global economic wellbeing using nighttime satellite images.
Researchers from the IIASA Energy, Climate, and Environment Program found that agricultural efforts in downstream countries in Central Asia, traditionally hampered by a lack of water for irrigation during the summer growing season, would be significantly boosted with a “dual water and energy storage scheme”, which also paves the way for high shares of renewable energy generation in the region.
The project, Just Transitions to Net-zero Carbon Emissions for All (JustTrans4All), was selected in 2021 as one of the first two IIASA Strategic Initiatives. The project kicked off in September 2021 and aims to contribute to novel analyses of transition pathways that reflect justice concerns.
IIASA lead authors from Working Groups II and III of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Sixth Assessment Report will present the main findings at an event co-organized with the Climate Change Center Austria, the Austrian Federal Ministry of Climate Protection, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology, and the Austrian Academy of Sciences. The event will take place in German.
Nadejda Komendantova who leads the IIASA Cooperation and Transformative Governance (CAT) Research Group, has been invited to be the presenter of the next seminar of the Oxford Energy series. Her talk titled “Participatory Governance and Social Factors in the Energy Transition” addresses the question what is the current potential for polycentric governance and the opportunities for the co-production of energy policy given the general public’s existing levels of awareness and willingness to participate.