17 June 2015

26th IUGG General Assembly 2015 

The IUGG General Assembly is held every four years, bringing together the eight associations of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG) for a range of inter-disciplinary, cross-disciplinary and association-specific symposia. IIASA Director General and CEO Pavel Kabat will participate in the next IUGG General Assembly, which will be based around the theme ‘Earth and Environmental Sciences for Future Generations’.

© IUGG

© IUGG

IUGG is a composite of eight semi-autonomous associations covering various physical, chemical, mathematical, and environmental disciplines. The scientific program of the IUGG general assembly in 2015 will include lectures and presentations, panel discussions, poster sessions, business meetings and field trips. 

Kabat will will participate in the plenary sessions on Future Earth and Sustainability on 23 June and discuss the systems approach that is required to address the complex issues facing the world.

Systems Approach to Future Earth


U1 Future Earth and Sustainability

June 23, 10:30 - 12:30
Congress Hall


Narrowly focused, single-disciplinary science alone cannot adequately underpin policies and solutions to resolve major transitions and sustainability challenges. One example of the system’s approaches is the IIASA’s Global Energy Assessment (GEA), multidisciplinary study, whose findings were released during Rio+20. The GEA links energy to climate, air quality, human health and mortality, economic growth, urbanization, water, land use, and other factors. The GEA scenarios find that energy access for all (by 2050) is possible with co-benefits of limiting warming to 2°C, improving air quality and human health, and stimulating economic growth within a green economy framework.


In addition to GEA, methodological approaches will be discussed along with examples of the fundamental science behind systems analysis, including climate and water systems, as well as game theory approaches for governance towards the governance of common goods as pursued at International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA).


IIASA was created in the peak of the Cold War during the 1970's and it became a world leading institute for trans-disciplinary and cross-sectoral systems science applied towards multiple aspects of global and regional transformations ranging from environment, energy and climate to financial, economic and demographic transitions. IIASA is an independent, global international science and science to policy institute with currently 22 member countries and more than 2000 international staff, across an entire range of disciplines, from mathematics to sociology. IIASA is partnering with and supporting the Future Earth by a number of large scale projects, among them the World 2050 study, which will provide integrated scenarios for global sustainable development. 




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Last edited: 17 June 2015

IUGG General Assembly

Systems Science Approach to Future Earth

Keynote presentation from Professor Dr. Pavel Kabat

Global Energy Assessment

International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)
Schlossplatz 1, A-2361 Laxenburg, Austria
Phone: (+43 2236) 807 0 Fax:(+43 2236) 71 313