Reinhard Mechler

Research Group Leader and Senior Research Scholar

Systemic Risk and Resilience Research Group

Advancing Systems Analysis Program

Biography

Reinhard Mechler has over 20 years of experience analyzing and addressing socio-economic aspects of disaster and climate change risks. His interest is to provide evidence-based advice to a wide range of public and private sector decision-makers to improve decisions and build resilience against salient risks. Currently, he is the leader of the Systemic Risk and Resilience (SYRR) Research Group in the IIASA Advancing Systems Analysis (ASA) Program. He has also been a visiting professor at the University of Graz and is a senior lecturer at the University for Economics and Business in Vienna.

Dr. Mechler has led and contributed to many international research and consultancy projects and is currently leading research for the Flood Resilience Alliance, which brings together researchers, international NGOs, and the private sector to build disaster and climate resilience across the globe. He acted as a lead author on the IPCC's special report on managing the risks of extreme events and disasters to advance climate change adaptation (SREX), the 5th assessment report and the report on 1.5°C global warming, and is currently a lead author on the IPCC's 6th assessment report.

Areas of Expertise: Socio-Economics of natural disaster risk management and climate adaptation, climate risk and resilience, disaster risk management and climate change policy, loss and damage, climate finance.

Last update: 24 MAR 2021

Publications

Sillmann, J., Christensen, I., Hochrainer-Stigler, S., Huang-Lachmann, J., Juhola, S., Kornhuber, K., Mahecha, M., Mechler, R. , Reichstein, M., Ruane, A.C., Schweizer, P.-J., & Wiliiams, S. (2022). ISC-UNDRR-RISK KAN Briefing note on systemic risk. International Science Council , Paris, France. 10.24948/2022.01.

Pörtner, H.-O., Roberts, D.C., Poloczanska, E.S., Mintenbeck, K., Tignor, M., Alegría, A., Craig, M., Langsdorf, S., Löschke, S, Möller, V., & Okem, A. (2022). Summary for Policymakers. In: IPCC 2022: Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Eds. Pörtner, H.-O., Roberts, D.C., Tignor, M., Poloczanska, E.S., Mintenbeck, K, Alegría, A., Craig, M., Langsdorf, S., Löschke, S., Möller, V., Okem, A., & Rama, B., pp. 3-33 Cambridge, UK and New York, NY, USA: Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/9781009325844.001.

European Commission, (2021). Climate Action in the Post-COVID-19 world: Insights from EU-funded projects on how to build forward better. pp. 27-32 Brussels: European Commission. ISBN 978-92-76-40952-6 10.2777/02755.

Mechler, R. & Deubelli, T. (2021). A policy framework for Loss and Damage finance. IIASA Policy Brief. Laxenburg, Austria: PB-32

Hochrainer-Stigler, S., Velev, S., Laurien, F. , Campbell, K., Czajkowski, J., Keating, A., & Mechler, R. (2021). Differences in the dynamics of community disaster resilience across the globe. Scientific Reports 11 e17625. 10.1038/s41598-021-96763-0.