Evolutionary changes could lead to reduced fishery yields. A new IIASA study shows how alternative management practices could mitigate the problem in a key North Sea fishery.
Small off-grid electricity systems are growing rapidly in South Asia. A new study provides the first assessment of how these systems are impacting communities in the region.
A new IIASA study proposes a solution for mitigating the increasingly risky nature of financial markets, based on an analysis of systemic risk in financial networks.
Despite the recent crises in the EU, citizens increasingly identify themselves as European compared to recent decades. This is according to a new study by researchers at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), which confirms forecasts they made in a 2006 study and brings further insight to the demography of European identity.
Reducing energy imports and mitigating climate change are often portrayed as complementary. However, new research shows that while ambitious climate policies would lower energy imports, energy independence would not bring significant climate benefits.
A new study shows that increased demand for biomass for energy in Europe, through intensified use of existing forests, could lead to loss of biodiversity and high competition for wood between sectors, and proposes policies to help preserve biodiversity while also limiting greenhouse gas emissions.
Oil prices can have a major impact on the types and quantities of energy sources used—and thus on greenhouse gas emissions. A new study from researchers at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) and the World Bank is the first to quantify the energy and emissions impacts of future fuel prices and the various unknowns these impacts depend on.
Future food security depends on a variety of factors – but better soil data could substantially help improve projections of future crop yields, shows new research from the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)
The International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) and the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (EC-JRC) have launched a new research partnership to provide science-based knowledge on migration and demography to support EU policy.
Individual country pledges to reduce greenhouse gas emissions would need to be strengthened in order to limit future climate change to well below the 2°C limit included in the Paris climate agreement, according to a new assessment.
A new study from the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) shows how improving communication and involvement could bring consensus solutions for the embattled Rio Grande/Bravo, which is shared between the USA and Mexico.
A new study shows to where and to what extent palm oil plantations could be expanded, while avoiding further deforestation in pristine and carbon-rich tropical forests.
The Paris Agreement included groundbreaking text on the need for a mechanism to help identify risks beyond adaptation and support the victims of climate-related loss and damage—but how exactly it will work remains unclear. New IIASA research lends insight to policymakers on how to move forward.
The Paris Agreement on climate change goes into effect today, but while the agreement set ambitious targets for tackling climate change, scientists say there is a long way to go to achieve it. Research suggests pathways to get the world on track.
Researchers have developed a new tool for cities to optimize electric bus systems, which has now been used in Sweden’s first wireless charging bus system, launched in December.
Droughts can travel hundreds to thousands of kilometers from where they started, like a slow-moving hurricane. A new study sheds light on how these droughts evolve in space and time, bringing vital new insight for water managers.
For the next few weeks researchers are testing a new system to aid disaster damage mapping, providing much-needed real-time data to help communities recover and rebuild after disaster.
Human interventions to harness water resources, such as reservoirs, dams, and irrigation measures, have increased water availability for much of the global population, but at the same time, swept water scarcity problems downstream.
New measures of aging, combined with UN population projections, show that population aging is likely to end before 2100 in China, Germany, and the USA.
More targeted efforts are needed from both the public and private insurance sectors in order to encourage people to take action to reduce their risk of flood damage, according to a new study of three European countries.
● Higher exposure to secondary particles and ozone can be traced back to excess NOx emissions from diesel cars, vans and light commercial vehicles.
● With the EU’s vehicle emission limits achieved on the road about 5,000 premature deaths could be avoided annually.
● If diesel cars emitted as little NOx as petrol cars, about 7,500 premature deaths could be avoided annually.
Efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the agriculture and forestry sectors could lead to increased food prices—but new research identifies strategies that could help mitigate climate change while avoiding steep hikes in food prices.
Switching from using fuelwood to liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) for cooking would provide modest climate benefits, but the extent of these depend on whether the wood is renewably sourced, and if the short-lived emissions from burning wood are taken into account, according to a new analysis focused on India.
Current scenarios used to inform climate policy have a weakness in that they typically focus on reaching specific climate goals in 2100 – an approach which may encourage risky pathways that could have long-term negative effects.
Wheat is the world’s largest rain-fed crop in terms of harvested area and supplies about 20% of all calories consumed by humans. A new study has found that unless steps are taken to mitigate climate change, up to 60% of current wheat-growing areas worldwide could see simultaneous, severe and prolonged droughts by the end of the century.
When researchers or policymakers ask health related questions–which they do a lot–they often rely on self-reported rather than tested health data. Researchers looked into how reliable this type of data is for research and found that self-reported data could be highly biased.
Monitoring progress on the UN Sustainable Development Goals requires a huge amount of data. Citizen science could help fill important data gaps, say IIASA researchers.
Although the mapping of aboveground biomass is now possible with satellite remote sensing, these maps still have to be calibrated and validated using on-site data gathered by researchers across the world. A newly established global database will support Earth Observation and encourage investment in relevant field-based measurements and research.
Population aging projections across the US show a divide between cities and rural areas, which could lead to pockets of vulnerability to climate change.
A new study shows that afforestation and other forms of climate-friendly land use not only helps to remove CO2 from the atmosphere to reduce global warming, but they can also contribute to achieving the SDGs.
New framework helps decision makers find science-based pathways to address water resources and connected sustainability challenges in the Indus River basin.
A new roadmap outlines actions on deforestation, restoration, and carbon cuts that could lead to the land sector becoming carbon neutral by 2040 and a net carbon sink by 2050.
The results of a new IIASA study supports the notion of a “long arm of childhood conditions” that remains invisible beyond mid-life but can affect health satisfaction later in life.
Governance in climate vulnerable countries will take decades to improve, substantially impeding the ability of nations to adapt to climate change and affecting billions of people globally, according to new research published in Nature Sustainability.
An international research group that included researchers from IIASA and Japan, identified biases towards some selected carbon budgets in the current scenario literature.
Researchers explored optimal pathways for managing groundwater and hydropower trade-offs for different water availability conditions as solar and wind energy start to play a more prominent role in California.
A new global assessment shows that human impacts have greatly reduced plant-fungus symbioses, which play a key role in sequestering carbon in soils. Restoring these ecosystems could be one strategy to slow climate change.
The storage of energy for long periods of time is subject to special challenges. An IIASA researcher proposes using a combination of Mountain Gravity Energy Storage (MGES) and hydropower as a solution for this issue.
Two fundamental goals of humanity are to eradicate poverty and reduce climate change, and it is critical that the world knows whether achieving these goals will involve trade-offs.
Nitrous oxide is a greenhouse gas and one of the main stratospheric ozone depleting substances on the planet. According to new research, we are releasing more of it into the atmosphere than previously thought.
Diversifying crop production can make food supply more nutritious, reduce resource demand and greenhouse gas emissions, and enhance climate resilience without reducing calorie production or requiring more land.
The percentage of the world’s population that is above or below the ‘replacement level of fertility’ has long been used as a measure of demographic development. A new study revisited how this metric is calculated and how useful it really is in terms of informing policy decisions.
Extreme climatic conditions could lead to an increased risk of unusually low agricultural harvests if more than one global breadbasket is affected by adverse climate conditions at the same time.
The Arctic region is heating up faster than any other place on Earth, and as more and more sea ice is lost every year, we are already feeling the impacts. IIASA researchers explored strategies for cooling down the oceans in a world without this important cooling mechanism.