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After the summer break, the CLIMAAX Community of Practice is back with a new webinar series! This autumn, our sessions will focus on supporting the practical implementation of the CLIMAAX Framework and Toolbox, starting with the updated Step 4: Key Risk Assessment. This step guides users in both interpreting and prioritizing the results of climate risk assessment workflows.

The Climate Extremes Research Group is organizing an international conference and workshop on 24-26 September 2025 on the topic of Systemic Risks and Climate Extremes.

The Urban Futures Hub is pleased to announce the third installment of its Urban Futures Series. Join us for an insightful discussion featuring distinguished speakers Diana Reckien, Minal Pathak, and Cynthia Rosenzweig about the Justice for Resilient Development in Climate-Stressed Cities.

IIASA will host the first author meeting of the upcoming Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) Spatial Planning and Connectivity Assessment in Laxenburg, Austria from 22-26 September. The meeting will bring together experts from around the world to begin work on the assessment, which will examine how spatial planning can integrate biodiversity and human wellbeing.

IIASA and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to strengthen collaboration at the intersection of health and climate research. Building on their complementary expertise, the two institutions will join forces to develop innovative approaches that address some of today’s most pressing global challenges.

IIASA will host the first author meeting of the upcoming Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) Spatial Planning and Connectivity Assessment in Laxenburg from 22-26 September 2025. The meeting will bring together experts from around the world to launch work on the assessment, which will evaluate knowledge and methods for integrated spatial planning and ecological connectivity to support the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.

As Europe advances its climate adaptation and biodiversity strategies, a new report by the Assessing Climate Change Risk in Europe (ACCREU) project, led by IIASA in partnership with the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) and the Global Climate Forum (GCF), shows how climate change and changes in land use will reshape ecosystems and the services they provide. The study examines wetlands, forests, farmland, species habitats, and pollination under different scenarios, combining ecological modeling with economic valuation.

Unprecedented heat waves are becoming the new normal, and researchers can now trace much of this change back to the world’s biggest fossil fuel and cement producers. IIASA researchers contributed to a new study showing that emissions from just 180 companies are responsible for about half of today’s warming. These findings have significant implications for questions of climate policy and corporate accountability.

For studying optimal policies and interventions to inform regional decision makers facing technological, economic and social transitions, we have developed the Dynamic Framework for Regional Socio-Economic Transitions (D-RESET).

Convened by the African Union and the Ethiopian Government, the Second Africa Climate Summit will provide a platform for policymakers, practitioners, businesses and civil society to advance Africa’s climate agenda and sustainable development priorities. IIASA Strategic Initiatives Program Director Steffen Fritz, will contribute his expertise to discussions at the event as part of a session titled, Leveraging AI to Build Climate Resilience and Adaptive Capacity.

IIASA will host a class from the International Business College Hetzendorf next week. Around 25 students from the bilingual school will attend a half-day workshop to explore systems thinking through the life cycle analysis of a chocolate bar.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) methods are becoming increasingly important in both science and society. In climate science - where complex biophysical and societal processes interact across diverse temporal and spatial scales, and datasets are often large, heterogenous and incomplete - AI and ML methods offer new powerful solutions.

IIASA Director General Hans Joachim (John) Schellnhuber will take part in the next Ö1 Publikumsgespräch in Vienna. On Thursday, 18 September 2025, he will join architect Markus Zilker for a public conversation on the theme, Sustainable building: using wood as a building material, moderated by Ö1 science editor Juliane Nagiller.

This session of the popular Tipping points webinar series will explore dampening effects on positive social tipping points and strategies to reduce them as part of a series that aims to advance the knowledge about tipping points, irreversibility, and abrupt changes in the Earth system. 

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.

A new cohort of students successfully completed IIASA’s second Summer School for Systems Modeling. Held on 7-18 July 2025, the program brought together 28 participants from 15 countries. The two-week course convened bachelor, master’s, and PhD students, as well as post-doctoral researchers and experienced systems scientists, all seeking to deepen their understanding of IIASA models – their application, development, and optimization.