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
Amann, M. , Borken-Kleefeld, J. , Cofala, J., Hettelingh, J.-P., Heyes, C. , Höglund-Isaksson, L. , Holland, M., Kiesewetter, G. , Klimont, Z. , Rafaj, P. , Posch, M. , Sander, R. , Schoepp, W. , Wagner, F. , & Winiwarter, W. (2014). The final policy scenarios of the EU Clean Air Policy Package. XO-14-072
Paasonen, P., Visshedjik, A., Kupiainen, K., Klimont, Z. , Denier van der Gon, H., & Kulmala, M. (2013). Aerosol Particle Number Emissions and Size Distributions: Implementation in the GAINS Model and Initial Results. IIASA Interim Report. IIASA, Laxenburg, Austria: IR-13-020
Frost, G.J., Middleton, P., Tarrason, L., Granier, C., Guenther, A., Cardenas, B., Denier van der Gon, H., Janssens-Maenhout, G., Kaiser, J.W., Keating, T., Klimont, Z. , Lamarque, J.-F., Liousse, C., O'Hara, T., Schultz, M.G., Skiba, U., & van Aardenne, J. (2013). New directions: GEIA's 2020 vision for better air emissions information. Atmospheric Environment 81 710-712. 10.1016/j.atmosenv.2013.08.063.
Klimont, Z. (2013). On Thin Ice: Mitigation measures. In: Day of the Cryosphere: Climate Change Today in Polar and Mountain Regions, 17 November 2013, Warsaw, Poland.
Liu, F., Klimont, Z. , Zhang, Q., Cofala, J., Zhao, L., Huo, H., Nguyen, B. , Schoepp, W. , Sander, R. , Zheng, B., Hong, C., He, K., Amann, M. , & Heyes, C. (2013). Integrating mitigation of air pollutants and greenhouse gases in Chinese cities: Development of GAINS-City model for Beijing. Journal of Cleaner Production 25-33. 10.1016/j.jclepro.2013.03.024.