Climate Policies Can Resolve Energy and Air Pollution Challenges
Policies to protect the global climate offer the most effective entry point for achieving energy sustainability, simultaneously reducing air pollution and improving energy security. By integrating climate and energy policies, major synergies and cost co-benefits can be realized. The findings are published in the latest issue of Nature Climate Change, in a commentary authored by IIASA’s David McCollum, Volker Krey and Keywan Riahi. More
 

World Energy Outlook 2011 air pollutants scenarios
IIASA researchers contributed to the International Energy Agency’s World Energy Outlook 2011 with an assessment of global emissions of major air pollutants under three different scenarios. IIASA’s report, based on the GAINS model, projects emissions to 2035 for 25 regions and demonstrates the synergies between climate change and air pollution control policies.
 

Feasible Emission Scenarios to Limit Temperature Rise
A comprehensive re-analysis of GHG emission pathways finds that in scenarios that limit temperature change to below 2°C, emissions peak before 2020 then fall to 41-46 GtC and continue to fall. Global emissions are currently 48 GtC and rising. The study, co-authored by IIASA’s Keywan Riahi and published in Nature Climate Change 23 Oct., aims to inform the identification of short-term emission targets compatible with the 2°C limit.
 

IIASA Postdoctoral Program
IIASA provides full funding for two postdoctoral researchers each year. The goals of the program are to encourage and promote the development of young researchers and offer them the opportunity to further their careers by gaining hands-on professional research experience in a highly international scientific environment; and to enrich IIASA's intellectual environment and help achieve research program goals. Scholars are expected to conduct their own research within one of IIASA's research programs or special projects on topics closely related to IIASA's agenda. The deadline for applications is February 29, 2012. More information on this program can be found here.

Dr. Michael Obersteiner, New Program Leader of the Ecosystem Services & Management (ESM) Program at IIASA
IIASA recently appointed Michael Obersteiner as the new Leader for the ESM program. Dr. Obersteiner joined IIASA's Forestry Program (FOR) in 1993 and has been leading the Group on Global Land-Use Modeling and Environmental Economics since 2001. Dr. Obersteiner's research experience stretches from plant physiology and biophysical modeling in the areas of ecosystems, forestry and agriculture to environmental economics, bioenergy engineering and climate change sciences.

New UN Group to implement Sustainable Energy for All initiative
Nebojsa Nakicenovic has been appointed to the Technical Group of the UN Secretary-General’s (SG) High-level Group on Sustainable Energy for All. The Group will develop a Global Strategy for launch by the SG at the RIO+20 Summit. Nakicenovic presented options for achieving the SG’s access, efficiency, and renewable targets at the Groups inaugural meeting in NY and participated in the 2nd meeting, Oslo 9 Oct.

New ICSU initiative on Global Health
Last week, the General Assembly of the International Council for Science, http://www.icsu.org/, has endorsed plans for a new global initiative "Health and Wellbeing in the Changing Urban Environment: A Systems Analysis Approach." IIASA’s Landis Mackellar chaired the Planning Group, which will apply systems analysis to help resolve urban health and wellbeing issues, particularly in Asia and the Pacific. An international scientific advisory committee will be put in place to oversee its implementation and an international programme office will be established. More…

Nuclear Power as a Wrong Path
Jose Goldemberg, Global Energy Assessment Co-president reports on nuclear power options globally. More…

Energy Security and Energy Access - Interconnected Global Challenges
Energy access and energy security are critical issues for policymakers globally, affecting livelihoods in the developed and the developing world. IIASA’s Shonali Pachauri is coeditor of a special edition of Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability that explores many aspects of energy including: the scale of the energy access challenge, gender dimensions, and financing options to ensure the sustainability of energy access efforts.
 

Education - A Key Determinant of Population Growth and Well-being
Future trends in global population growth could be significantly affected by improvements in both the quality and quantity of education, particularly female education. Projections of future population trends that do not explicitly include education in their analysis may be flawed, according to research by IIASA’s Wolfgang Lutz and Samir K. C. published in Science (29 July). More.