YSSP Opportunities in the ECE Program

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The overall objective of the Energy, Climate, and Environment (ECE) Program is to provide evidence-based, scientific roadmaps for feasible systems transformations that simultaneously meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and ambitious climate change mitigation targets. 

The research agenda focuses on understanding the nature and implications of future energy and economy transitions, and analyzing strategies to protect the local, regional and global atmosphere, human health and the environment while safeguarding a decent life for all. 

The provision of adequate energy and environmental services is a precondition for socioeconomic development and human well-being. Yet, present energy systems face several major challenges, which need to be addressed urgently and simultaneously. These range from the lack of access to modern energy services and infrastructure in less advanced regions of the world to environmental problems of climate change and air pollution as well as concerns with respect to security and resilience of present systems. The systematic assessment of the economic and environmental synergies between air pollution control and mitigation of global warming could point the way towards effective and viable approaches for attaining sustainability objectives and maintaining economic prosperity.  

Taking a system’s perspective, the ECE Program has pioneered the application of new methodologies in the areas of integrated assessment, spatial and behavioral heterogeneity, multi-criteria analysis, technology assessments, emissions impacts over atmospheric interaction, health, and the natural environment, exploring uncertainty and risk analysis. These methodologies are used in systematic and holistic policy-scenario studies to assess the costs and benefits of future energy and societal transformations. 

ECE's research activities combine solution-oriented and policy-relevant research with exploratory and empirical analysis.

 

The ECE Program is comprised of five Research Groups:

1. Integrated Assessment and Climate Change (IACC)
2. Integrated Climate Impacts (ICI)
3. Pollution Management (PM)
4. Sustainable Service Systems (S3)
5. Transformative Institutional and Social Solutions (TISS)

 

The main areas of research include: 

• Integrated assessment, energy transformation pathways, and transition to a net-zero emissions society (IACC) 

• The interactions and environmental impacts of pollution across different media (air, water, soil) under changing economic systems (PM)
• Assessment of sources of non-CO2 greenhouse gases and their mitigation opportunities in the near and long-term (PM)
• Approaches to address nutrient and material cycling (PM)

• Energy Access, poverty, energy demand transitions and decent living (TISS, S3)

• The Political economy of energy transitions including energy security analysis and how energy technologies grow and contract (IACC, TISS, S3) 

• Integrated assessment of the water-energy-land nexus and climate impacts on the energy system (IACC) 

• Physical climate impacts and risks in a scenario context (ICI)

YSSP applications should be related to at least one of these fields.

 

ECE is particularly interested in YSSP applicants working on the following topics:   

• Analyzing the linkages (including synergies and trade-offs) between energy and climate policy objectives, such as GHG mitigation and energy security, and broader sustainable development goals, such as alleviating energy poverty, improving air quality, maintaining food security, ensuring water availability, and increasing resilience to climate variability. Of high interest is how these complex relationships play out at different regional scales, from global to local.
  • Research Group(s): IACC, S3, TISS

 

• Addressing interactions between air pollution at various scales (global, regional, urban/rural) to examine interdependencies between pollution, health, ecosystems and other co-benefits for SDGs.
  • Research Group(s): PM

 

• Applying systems perspectives to study nutrient and material cycling (nitrogen, metals, plastic), the mitigation opportunities in the non-energy sectors (agriculture, waste, industrial process), as well social inequalities.
  • Research Group(s): PM, TISS

 

• Exploring approaches to transition to a circular economy by implementing sustainable waste management practices that prioritize waste reduction, recovery, reuse, reclamation, and recycling of materials. This approach aims to minimize environmental impact, conserve resources, and create long-term economic benefits by closing material loops and reducing dependence on raw materials.
  • Research Group(s): PM, IACC

 

• Assessment of sources of non-CO2 greenhouse gases emissions, their validation, and mitigation opportunities in the near and long-term
  • Research Group(s): PM, IACC

 

• Exploring the future role of transformative solutions for mitigating climate change and how to transition to a net-zero emissions society, including the policy incentives and investments to achieve these goals.  This includes but is not limited to alternative low-carbon energy carriers (e.g., hydrogen), negative emissions technologies (e.g., Direct Air Capture or Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage) and extends further to exploring game-changing societal trends and innovations that lead to fundamental transformations of demand, lifestyles and behavioral changes.
  • Research Group(s): IACC, S3

 

• Understanding the role of material cycles in the transformation to a low-carbon economy, including important elements of circular economy approaches as additional mitigation option. The focus is on bulk materials such as steel, cement, non-ferrous metals, and plastics, and also covers important critical materials for key low-carbon technologies, such as batteries and fuel cells.
  • Research Group(s): IACC

 

• In conjunction with the Biodiversity and Natural Resources Program, modeling the water-energy-land nexus, including (a) assessing the impacts of bioenergy expansion on land-use and food production and (b) quantifying water use associated with future energy transitions, (c) coupled water-energy-land systems optimization modelling at the river basin scale.
  • Research Group(s): IACC

 

• Improving the representation and granularity of demand-side modelling in the context of integrated assessment modeling, including the roles of consumer choice and behavioral changes, and determining the energy gaps required to meet the SDGs provide people with decent living energy.
  • Research Group(s): IACC, S3, TISS

 

• Understanding policies, institutions and the political economy of sustainable energy system transitions to better represent and model the feasibility of decarbonization pathways.
  • Research Group(s): TISS 

 

• Improving the representation of spatial and socioeconomic heterogeneity in energy models as a means to, for example, refine resource supply curves, quantify regional infrastructure requirements, and better understand energy demand and affordability across diverse socioeconomic groups.
  • Research Group(s): IACC

 

• Understanding the impacts of climate change on the energy system, both energy supply and demand, and considering both extreme events and long-term gradual changes. Furthermore, making stylized representation of these impacts in integrated assessment models and understanding the avoided impacts of decarbonization.
  • Research Group(s): IACC, ICI

 

• Exploring the prevalence and consequences of historical energy industry contractions in order to understand the feasibility as well as the social and political implications of the fossil fuel phase-out needed under the Paris climate target.
  • Research Group(s): S3, TISS

 

• Research on the expansion, extension or evaluation of the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs). These new common scenarios are increasingly used across the climate change research community. Research can focus on expanding the scenarios to yet uncovered domains, extensions into different sectors, or evaluation of the use of SSPs in research projects.
  • Research Group(s): IACC, ICI, S3

 

• Exploring the role of the finance sector in energy transitions and summarizing the results of energy transition scenarios for the financial sector. Improving the representation of the finance sector (e.g., investment, cost of capital, financing sources, catalytic effect, etc.) in integrated assessment models.
  • Research Group(s): S3 , IACC

 

• Research on the development and expansion of city-level behavioral agent-based modeling on e.g. buildings, transport and governance.
  • Research Group(s): S3 

 

• Research on how cities and urban systems can lead climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts from local to global scales.
  • Research Group(s): S3 

 

• Research on sustainable buildings and sectoral mitigation and adaptation scenarios at global and national scales, including the exploration of key household heterogeneities and inequalities in access to basic residential services.
  • Research Group(s): S3

 

• Enablers and barriers to climate change mitigation strategies and pathways, ranging from sectoral and city-level initiatives to national and international frameworks
  • Research Group(s): S3

 

• Improve the understanding of the feedbacks between human and natural systems, social change, and the potential of positive tipping points by system dynamics modeling
  • Research Group(s): S3

 

• Improve the understanding of biophysical and economic climate impacts and risks with particular focus on key risks, extreme events, climate overshoot, and tipping elements, and an enhanced integration of climate impact drivers along the climate impact chain.
  • Research Group(s): ICI

 

• Advance frameworks for climate resilient development pathways. This includes the development and application of novel methodologies for an integrated assessment of climate impacts, adaptation, and mitigation, including stress testing. 
  • Research Group(s): ICI

 

• Develop an interdisciplinary research agenda of linking emissions to climate damages. Advancing from questions of climate attribution to climate accountability for damages.
  • Research Group(s): ICI

 

This list is not meant to be exhaustive and applicants are encouraged to suggest other research topics for the YSSP that fit into the ECE Program’s research agenda. 

The MESSAGE model and the GAINS model stand at the core of ECE’s modeling framework - developed respectively for medium- to long-term energy system planning, energy policy analysis, and for studying the whole impact pathway chain from emissions over atmospheric interaction, transmission, deposition and exposure to impacts on human health, the natural environment and the climate. 

 

For candidates interested in applying to be a YSSP in the ECE Program, please read through the program’s Overview and Application Information. Furthermore, familiarize yourself with recent publications from the group to help guide your proposal development.  If you have further questions or are unsure who would be a suitable supervisor, please contact Jun Shepard in the first instance with: 

• your CV 

• a proposal abstract (or at a minimum bullet points) on proposed research topics and how they align with ECE Program activities

Please note that YSSP is a summer program for current (and in most cases advanced) PhD students. IIASA is not a degree-granting institution.