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Luis J. Castro returned to IIASA in February and March to re-visit the models he worked on at IIASA from 1977-1982. Below he shares his professional experience over the last 40 years.

Impact Sheet #12, January 2015. IIASA plays a leading role in shaping the annual Emission Gap Reports, launched by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) in 2010. These reports assess whether emissions pledges from countries during the international climate negotiations are on track to limit temperature increase to 2ºC or less this century. The reports appear each year to inform governments and the international policy community about the possible gap that needs to be closed in order or the world to follow a globally sustainable pathway toward wider objectives, such as the green economy.

Impact Sheet #2, November 2014. Natural disasters, particularly in developing countries, can swamp governments’ ability to support the relief and reconstruction process. Through its catastrophe simulation (CATSIM) model, IIASA has helped many governments to identify their financial and economic resilience and design efficient and appropriate risk-management and -financing strategies, putting governments into a position to proactively tackle the increasing burdens from natural disasters.

Imact Sheet #3, November 2014. Overfishing not only reduces the size of fish populations, it can alter their actual gene pool. In 1998 IIASA began researching fisheries-induced evolution with the aim of i) developing methodological tools to evaluate the evolutionary and ecological consequences of overfishing and ii) using resulting insights to identify evolutionarily sustainable management strategies.

Impact Sheet #4, November 2014. IIASA launched the GAINS model in 2006 to explore the synergies and trade-offs between control of local and regional air pollution and mitigation of global greenhouse gases (GHGs). GAINS is used to analyze the future socioeconomic drivers of emissions, emission control options, the chemical transformation and dispersion of pollutants in the atmosphere, and ensuing human health and environmental impacts.

Impact Sheet #5, November 2014. IIASA has developed an integrated modeling cluster built around the Global Biosphere Management Model (GLOBIOM) which integrates the agricultural, bioenergy, and forestry sectors and draws on comprehensive socioeconomic and geospatial data. It is integrated with several other models developed by IIASA and partners.

Impact Sheet #6, November 2014. In 2007 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) asked the scientific community to develop new scenarios for the Fifth Assessment Report. IIASA scientists contributed to developing two new sets of scenarios: the Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs)—four pathways for emissions, concentrations, and radiative forcing; and the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs)—five possible paths human societies could follow over the next century. The RCP and SSP databases are hosted by IIASA.

Impact Sheet #7, November 2014. MESSAGE is a IIASA modeling framework for medium- to long-term energy system planning, energy policy analysis, and scenario development. It provides a flexible framework for the comprehensive assessment of major energy challenges. It has been applied extensively to developing scenarios for large global research programs, such as the latest three assessment reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the 2012 Global Energy Assessment.

Impact Sheet #8, November 2014. The Global Energy Assessment (GEA), coordinated by IIASA, provides the scientific basis for the 2012 global initiative, Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL), launched by former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. In addition, IIASA/GEA scientists developed analytical tools and policy options for the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the largest public funder of projects to improve the global environment. GEA authors, many from IIASA, also provided substantive input to the 2014 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fifth Assessment Report.

Impact Sheet #11, November 2014. IIASA researchers have launched several initiatives to reduce uncertainties in the mapping of land cover, mobilizing partners in the national and international mapping communities to share data and products to help develop an accurate global cropland map at minimal cost.

Impact Sheet #10, November 2014. Population research at IIASA is interdisciplinary and thus looks beyond the traditional bounds of demography to study how development of human capital helps to address social, economic, and environmental challenges. These interactions, which emphasize human capital formation, are among the most important challenges facing IIASA demographers today.

Impact Sheet #9, November 2014. Advanced systems analysis at IIASA helps decision makers resolve large-scale socio-technical problems in the short, medium, and long term. The problems IIASA tackles are immense, interconnected, persistent, and urgent. They affect human wellbeing and the environment on which we depend. They are of such complexity that to neglect a single aspect of them could be very costly—and not just in monetary terms.

Impact Sheet #1, November 2014. Arctic temperatures have risen at twice the global average rate over the last 40 years. In recent years, concerns arose that the warming from short-lived climate forcers (SLCFs), like methane, tropospheric ozone, and especially black carbon, might be greater than that of CO2. In 2009 the intergovernmental Arctic Council asked IIASA to investigate the effects of SLCFs in the Arctic using its Greenhouse gas – Air pollution Interactions and Synergies (GAINS) model.

A system integration of ground and remote sensing data that parametrizes Russian territory at a 1km spatial resolution for forests and includes tree species, age, and biomass distribution.

Policy Brief #11, September 2014. According to the results of new population research, strengthening human capital by focusing on education and health should become the main goal of national population policies throughout the world.

Downloadable global forest map at a half-degree resolution

Policy Brief #10,  December 2012. In October 2012, IIASA brought together over 800 leading scientists and experts from a diverse range of disciplines,  regions, and institutions to explore the power of science to find future "worlds within reach” and to chart a path “from science to policy.” The conference showed how systems analysis can diagnose complex problems and deliver smart solutions with multiple benefits for both the planet and its people.

Policy Brief #09,  December 2009. IIASA has developed an easy-to-use online calculator to help industrialized countries compare efforts to lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions with those of other countries. The calculator is designed to explore alternative schemes for sharing the burden between countries, and it can help industrialized countries identify a mutually agreeable set of GHG emission reduction targets.

Policy Brief #08, December 2009. As up to 20 percent of global anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions result from deforestation, the reduction of emissions from deforestation and degradation of forests (REDD) is a major theme of the ongoing negotiations under the UNFCCC. This briefing looks at the fundamental issues and the challenges involved in current proposals to implement a trading scheme for REDD credits.

Policy Brief #07 December 2009. This briefing identifies the opportunities, risks, and challenges associated with efforts to expand solar energy capacity in North Africa to the point where it can make a significant contribution toward achieving emissions reductions targets. It is based on collaborative research between IIASA and PIK, the Postdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.