Pakistan
The Academy is the largest national scientific body in Pakistan providing independent scientific opinion on matters of importance to policy makers.
Dr. Adil Najam is the Council member from Pakistan.
Dr. Arshad M. Khan, Executive Director of the Global Change Impact Studies Centre (GCICS), is IIASA NMO Secretary for Pakistan.
In 2011 the NMO for Pakistan began discussions to facilitate the establishment of a PAK – IIASA Collaboration Group, with Dr. Hasibullah, Advisor International Affairs COMSATS, (Commission on Science and Technology for Sustainable Development in the South) as its Coordinator.
Key Relationships and Collaborations
- The Pakistan Academy of Sciences, Islamabad
- Global Change Impact Studies Centre, Islamabad
- Commission on Science and Technology for Sustainable Development in the South, Islamabad
- Institute for Social and Environmental Transition, Islamabad
- National Institute of Disaster Management, Islamabad
- Pakistan Institute of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Islamabad
Select Research Highlights
Following is a selection only, for more information about IIASA research relevant to Pakistan, please read the Country Profile.
Air quality and GHG emissions:
- There is ongoing collaboration between Pakistan and IIASA with regards air pollution and climate impacts. This work draws on the Greenhouse Gas and Air Pollution Control Synergies (GAINS) model developed at IIASA. The GAINS model allows a comprehensive assessment of cost-effective air pollution control strategies in countries, together with a systematic analysis of their potential co-benefits for greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs), and human and environmental health. In 2008 IIASA, together with Chinese, Indian and Pakistani collaborators completed the GAINS implementation for Pakistan with results presented at workshops in Islamabad.
Risk and adaptation:
- With funding from the UK Department for International Development, IIASA in collaboration with the Institute for Social and Environmental Transition (ISET) and associates Fawad Khan in Pakistan and Unmesh Patnaik in India, completed a project titled “From Risk to Resilience.” With partners in Nepal, Pakistan, and India, the project focused on water related disasters and how these may change as a consequence of climate change. The project developed a suite of methods that illustrate how the benefits and costs of different risk reduction strategies can be evaluated under different climate scenarios.
Population studies:
- IIASA and the Vienna Institute of Demography, completed a reconstruction of the population - by age, sex and for levels of educational attainment - for 120 countries for the period 1970–2000. With the Asian MetaCentre this analysis was further refined for Asia and presented in the Asian Demographic and Human Capital Data Sheet 2008. The analysis gives a complete cross-classification of the four educational attainment categories by age and sex over three decades. Pakistan was included in this analysis, the results indicating that by 2030 Pakistan may expect to have a population of 240.3 million and by 2100, 292.2 million. This projection work continues with guest scholar Asif Wazir investigating human capital and economic growth with a special emphasis on Pakistan. He is also working on population projections with respect to education in Pakistan.
Capacity Building
IIASA’s annual Young Scientists Summer Program (YSSP) offers advanced level PhD candidates the opportunity to work with IIASA scientists over a 3-month period, with the explicit aim of refining or extending their research skills in the area of systems analysis. Since the first Pakistani participant in 2006 a total of 11 students from Pakistan have participated in the program. A major emphasis of participants is the impact of climate change on various aspects of the Pakistan economy and environment, particularly water and food supply.