Zbigniew Klimont

Research Group Leader and Principal Research Scholar

Pollution Management Research Group

Energy, Climate, and Environment Program

Biography

Zbigniew Klimont joined the former IIASA Transboundary Air Pollution Project in 1992 and currently leads the Pollution Management Research Group in the IIASA Energy, Climate, and Environment Program.

IIASA developed the Greenhouse Gas and Air Pollution Interactions and Synergies (GAINS) integrated assessment framework to explore the synergies and trade-offs between the control of local and regional air pollution and the mitigation of global greenhouse gas emissions. GAINS has been used in regional and global studies including, among others, the assessment of short-lived climate forces (SLCF) mitigation potential and contributions to the development of air pollution storylines for the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) used in the work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and beyond.

Klimont works on the development and assessment of regional and global emissions of various air pollutants and mid-term scenarios. He has been leading the development of GAINS modules to estimate emissions and control costs of reducing emissions of ammonia, volatile organic compounds, and particulate matter (including black carbon). The GAINS framework continues to support the development of air pollution policy in Europe.

He has been involved in European and Asian work on emission control strategies for more than two decades, and has coauthored Asian, European, and global inventories and policy studies on air pollutants and their future evolution, with a specific focus on black carbon and other aerosols. He has authored and coauthored over 130 peer-reviewed papers, was a contributing author or lead author on the IPCC Working Group I for the Fifth Assessment Report (AR5), and Working Groups I and III of the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6). He was also the lead author on a number of global and regional (Asia and Latin America) climate and air pollution assessments led by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), as well as for Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP) assessments.

Klimont has a degree in environmental engineering from the Technical University of Warsaw, Poland. Prior to joining IIASA, he worked at the University of Warsaw’s Department of Geography and Regional Studies and then as a research fellow at the Polish Academy of Sciences’ Department of Energy Problems.

Last update: 18 JAN 2023

Publications

World Bank (2025). Towards Clean Air in Nepal: Benefits, Pollution Sources, and Solutions. The World Bank , Washington D.C..

Mahowald, N.M., Li, L., Vira, J., Prank, M., Hamilton, D.S., Matsui, H., Miller, R.L., Lu, P.L., Akyuz, E., Meidan, D., Hess, P., Lihavainen, H., Wiedinmyer, C., Hand, J., Alaimo, M.G., Alves, C., Alastuey, A., Artaxo, P., Barreto, A., Barraza, F., Becagli, S., Calzolai, G., Chellam, S., Chen, Y., Chuang, P., Cohen, D.D., Colombi, C., Diapouli, E., Dongarra, G., Eleftheriadis, K., Engelbrecht, J., Galy-Lacaux, C., Gaston, C., Gomez, D., González Ramos, Y., Harrison, R.M., Heyes, C. , Herut, B., Hopke, P., Hüglin, C., Kanakidou, M., Kertesz, Z., Klimont, Z. , Kyllönen, K., Lambert, F., Liu, X., Losno, R., Lucarelli, F., Maenhaut, W., Marticorena, B., Martin, R.V., Mihalopoulos, N., Morera-Gómez, Y., Paytan, A., Prospero, J., Rodríguez, S., Smichowski, P., Varrica, D., Walsh, B., Weagle, C.L., & Zhao, X. (2025). AERO-MAP: a data compilation and modeling approach to understand spatial variability in fine- and coarse-mode aerosol composition. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics 25 (9) 4665-4702. 10.5194/acp-25-4665-2025.

Tonne, C., Sieber, S., Filippidou, F., Tsiropoulos, I., Petropoulou, V., Kiesewetter, G. , Klimont, Z. , Höglund-Isaksson, L. , Witzke, P., Springmann, M., Pozzer, A., Lelieveld, J., Hamilton, I., Hsu, S.-C., Nieuwenhuijsen, M., Velázquez-Cortés, D., van den Bosch, M., Sazdovski, I., Santamaria, M., de'Donato, F., & Dasandi, N. (2025). Promoting health through climate change mitigation in Europe. The Lancet Planetary Health 9 (5) e431-e441. 10.1016/S2542-5196(25)00085-3.

Brito, T. , Höglund-Isaksson, L. , Rafaj, P. , Sander, R. , Pauls, A., Zhang, S. , & Klimont, Z. (2025). Evaluating Hydrogen Emissions from Incomplete Combustion: Historical Trends and the Role of Policy. DOI:10.5194/egusphere-egu25-18263. In: EGU General Assembly 2025, 27 April-02 May 2025, Vienna.

Sarkar, D., Imam, F., Kumar, A., Mukherjee, A., Purohit, P. , Kiesewetter, G. , Klimont, Z. , Ghosh, S., Balakrishnan, K., Chowdhury, S., & Dey, S. (2025). Pathways for India to Reduce Ambient Air Pollution Health Burden and Achieve the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG-3.4). Environmental Science & Technology 59 (10) 4765-4777. 10.1021/acs.est.4c08697.