Policy and Science Interface (PSI)

Quantitative policy assessments of the climate and land use sector 1) provide policy support to modelers and 2) communicate science to policymakers and give policy advice. The group develops methods and tools such as graphical user interfaces (GUIs) between stakeholders and models that enables a review and assessment of results and assumptions in a transparent and comprehensible way. 

Another way of strengthening ESM’s policy relevance is the organization and involvement of stakeholder workshops   or relevant side-events in the framework of, for example, UNFCCC/UNCBD/UNCCD. The results of these events are  fed into, inter alia, ICSU/Future Earth or GCP policies.

Presentations and policy briefs/peer-reviewed articles are another policy-oriented part of  ESM program members' work.   ESM’s PSI group also carries out training events for modelers from partner institutions such as INPE or COMIFAC (e.g. REDD-PAC School) and designs policy components for these events. 

Land Use/Land-Use Change Vision Workshop

A Land Use Change (LUC) Vision Workshop was organized by Brazil’s Center for Strategic Studies and Management (CGEE), together with Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE) and IIASA  More

FAO/UN-ECE - Forest Products Market Review

ESM’s Deputy Program Leader Florian Kraxner co-authored a chapter on Certified Forest Products Markets in the FAO-UN-ECE Forest Products Annual Market Review 2011-2012 More

FAO – Outlook Study on the Russian Forest Sector

Following an invitation by UN FAO, ESM senior research scholar Prof. Anatoly Shvidenko co-authored an FAO Report on the Russian Forest Sector. More

Assessment of national forestry policies and their impact on Copenhagen Pledges

ESM cooperated on a policy brief 2012 policy brief which showed for the first time how much the most effective domestic climate policies in major emitting countries would contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and also if their emission pledges made in Copenhagen in 2009 could be attained by such policies More

Biomass Futures Project: Support for EU Bioenergy Policies

ESM contributed to the Biomass Futures project, completed in 2012, with an integrated assessment of sustainable biomass supply. ESM used the GLOBIOM model which was  applied for the first time at national level for EU27 countries.   More

Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS)

A workshop on biofuels with carbon capture and storage was held in Jakarta, leading to the definition of a common agenda that will be embedded in government activities through the efforts of a BECCS task force with advisors from IIASA and the International Energy Agency.  More

ESM at the UNFCC Climate Change Conference 2012 in Doha, Qatar

 ESM Program Leader Michael Obersteiner delivered keynotes at three side-events dealing with forest conservation, REDD+, and greenhouse gas emissions pledges at COP18 in Dohar  More

Last edited: 08 October 2013