Finalization of the Global Energy Assessment

The year 2012 celebrated the publication of the Global Energy Assessment (GEA) report by IIASA and Cambridge University Press. The final manuscript was completed in late February and made available for purchase by the public in September. After a grace period of one month, the entire manuscripts, including additional supplementary material and interactive database, were published online in October.

The Global Energy Assessment identifies 41 comprehensive alternative transformation pathways to resolve the urgent challenges required to achieve a sustainable energy future. Implementation of these pathways relies on strong commitments from policy- and decision makers to achieve a transformation of the global energy system.

Coordinated by IIASA’s ENE and TNT programs, GEA was led by energy experts from around the world and is the first ever fully integrated assessment that analyzes energy challenges, opportunities, and strategies, for developing, industrialized, and emerging economies. It was supported by government and nongovernmental organizations, United Nations organizations, and the private sector.

GEA Global Dissemination

Upon completion of the GEA, activities hosted by IIASA have focused on coordination and support of GEA dissemination around the world. The GEA dissemination phase seeks to highlight the key findings of the GEA report by providing policy-relevant analysis and capacity-enhancing guidance to accelerate and promote the transition to sustainable technologies and policies. This includes the maintenance of a dedicated GEA Web site, supporting the network of GEA contributors, and to events dedicated to highlighting GEA findings. The dissemination effort puts a special focus on the developing countries, and in general is ideally placed to support energy initiatives worldwide. It is one of the main scientific supporting documents for the UN Secretary-General’s Initiative on Sustainable Energy for All.

As part of that dissemination the GEA report was launched at a high-level side-event during the Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in Brazil in June.

GEA was also a major topic of interest during other Rio+20 side-events, for example, during the International Council for Science “Future Earth” side-event, as well as at a jointly hosted side-event by IIASA, UNIDO, and the UNF.

Last edited: 30 October 2013