Press releases

Human activity and climate change are putting growing pressure on water resources, disrupting the predictability of the water cycle, and changing the availability and quality of freshwater. IIASA researchers and partners have developed a new framework for guiding water management and planning at the river-basin level, derived from the existing Global Water Planetary Boundary.

Who cuts emissions fastest, and who supports others do so, are central questions in global climate action. New IIASA-led research shows that building fairness into climate models from the start can inform deliberations without changing the overall climate goal.

Every US$1 invested in tackling climate change and air pollution together can generate around US$15 in economic benefits, according to a report published today by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC). This is higher than tackling climate and clean air separately and includes both market and non-market economic gains.

As countries compete for skilled workers and grapple with aging populations and labor shortages, understanding who is moving across borders is increasingly important. A new study provides the first global dataset of immigration composition disaggregated simultaneously by age, sex, and educational attainment, offering a new basis for tracking brain gain and brain drain and improving population projections.

A new study by an international team of researchers connects drought across the world’s wheat-growing regions with global markets and suggests that 3°C of warming could triple average wheat prices relative to 2010.

How can private gardens help support biodiversity in Austria? The new IIASA citizen science project G/ArtenLeben brings science and gardening practice together. At three G/ArtenCafés in Lower Austria, hobby gardeners are invited to contribute their knowledge and experience to research and work alongside scientists to explore how gardening can help biodiversity thrive.

In a new paper, researchers explain how EU battery regulations can help lay the groundwork for a widely shared evidentiary system for global sustainability governance.

As climate impacts such as heatwaves, floods, and fires are intensifying worldwide, there is an urgent demand for information on how to respond. IIASA researchers and partners have developed a new tool that meets that need, integrating climate drivers, risks, and adaptation options in one framework grounded in IPCC science. It turns authoritative global climate assessments into guidance practitioners can use.

Corporate climate spending now steers trillions of dollars in transition finance worldwide. Does it drive genuine climate action? Research shows that accounting flexibility alone can make a company's reported emissions vary by roughly a factor of two – enough to appear either as a climate leader or a laggard. A new Perspective in Nature Sustainability proposes developing industry-specific net-zero blueprints to close that gap.