Energy and Climate Change

IIASA continues to build on its capabilities in scenario development, integrated assessment of medium and long-term policies, and the development of robust adaptive strategies to reduce the impacts of climate change on human and societal wellbeing and to protect the environment.

Africa


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International model intercomparison projects

The Energy (ENE) Program has been at the forefront of several research efforts for the wider science community. These include the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) and two international model inter-comparison projects that were successfully completed in 2013 (EMF27 and AMPERE).  more

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Risk management and climate adaptation

Managing the risks of climate change is part of a more generalized approach to promoting sustainable development by reducing the vulnerability associated with climate risk. In 2013 the Risk, Poverty and Vulnerability Program (RPV) looked at various aspects of minimizing risk ahead of adverse weather-related impacts, including extreme events.   more

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Solar energy systems

Risk, Policy and Vulnerability (RPV) analysts in 2013 looked at how the energy transition might be constrained by the vulnerability of solar energy systems to extreme event risks in a changing climate. more

Arctic


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International model intercomparison projects

The Energy (ENE) Program has been at the forefront of several research efforts for the wider science community. These include the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) and two international model inter-comparison projects that were successfully completed in 2013 (EMF27 and AMPERE).  more

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Risk management and climate adaptation

Managing the risks of climate change is part of a more generalized approach to promoting sustainable development by reducing the vulnerability associated with climate risk. In 2013 the Risk, Poverty and Vulnerability Program (RPV) looked at various aspects of minimizing risk ahead of adverse weather-related impacts, including extreme events.   more

Asia


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Education and environmental vulnerability

As part of a larger project, Forecasting Societies’ Adaptive Capacity to Climate Change, a Special Feature entitled Education and Differential Vulnerability to Natural Disasters was published in the journal, Ecology & Society. more

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Energy access research

Work in the area of energy access involved important developments and refinements of the MESSAGE-Access model and its expansion to include decentralized electricity supply in South Asia and regional coverage for China. more

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Energy security

Research on energy security by the Energy Program (ENE) centers around applying the formal conceptual framework for evaluating energy security in long-term energy scenarios. The framework was established by ENE researcher Jessica Jewell in collaboration with colleagues from the Central European University (CEU, Hungary). more

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Integrated modeling and qualitative analysis

As environmental problems do not respect disciplinary boundaries, integrated assessment modeling, pioneered by IIASA, is a useful adjunct to environmental policy analysis, integrating knowledge from more than one domain into a single framework. more

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Integrating physical and socio-economic modeling

In collaboration with IIASA’s Population Program, the Mitigation of Air Pollution and Greenhouse Gases (MAG) Program produced an innovative model of the interactions between population dynamics, economic growth and investments into environmental protection and the consequences on human well-being. more

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International model intercomparison project, AMPERE

Within the framework of the AMPERE project, ENE in 2013 led the multi-model comparison effort involving international partners from Asia, the United States and Europe to evaluate the impact of near-term climate policies. more

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International model intercomparison projects

The Energy (ENE) Program has been at the forefront of several research efforts for the wider science community. These include the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) and two international model inter-comparison projects that were successfully completed in 2013 (EMF27 and AMPERE).  more

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Risk Governance: Supporting transitions in climate and energy policy

In 2013 Risk, Policy and Vulnerability (RPV) researchers looked at multilevel governance approaches in climate and energy policy, the need for improved macroeconomic governance to promote sustainable development, and the importance of taking account of stakeholder inputs in the governance of the commons. more

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Risk management and climate adaptation

Managing the risks of climate change is part of a more generalized approach to promoting sustainable development by reducing the vulnerability associated with climate risk. In 2013 the Risk, Poverty and Vulnerability Program (RPV) looked at various aspects of minimizing risk ahead of adverse weather-related impacts, including extreme events.   more

Europe


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Advanced techniques for extreme event risk

Risk, Policy and Vulnerability (RPV) staff introduced a new method to up-scale dependent loss distributions from natural hazards to higher spatial levels, explicitly incorporating their dependency structure over the aggregation process. more

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Climate change will raise electricity prices

Changes in water availability and water temperature under climate change are likely to lead to higher electricity prices for most of Europe, according to a new study by IIASA's Water Futures and Solutions Initiative (WFaS). more

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Ecosystem services and bio-energy potential in the Alpine Space

In 2013 the Ecosystems Services and Management (ESM) Program's Policy Science Interface (PSI) group together with ESM Forest Ecosystems Management (FEM) continued their involvement in the recharge.green project that aims to analyze bio-energy potential and impacts in the Alps from biomass, solar, wind, and hydro. more

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Education and environmental vulnerability

As part of a larger project, Forecasting Societies’ Adaptive Capacity to Climate Change, a Special Feature entitled Education and Differential Vulnerability to Natural Disasters was published in the journal, Ecology & Society. more

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Energy security

Research on energy security by the Energy Program (ENE) centers around applying the formal conceptual framework for evaluating energy security in long-term energy scenarios. The framework was established by ENE researcher Jessica Jewell in collaboration with colleagues from the Central European University (CEU, Hungary). more

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Forest fires and adaptation options in Europe

Research addressed the assessment of adaptation options to forest fires in Europe under projected climate change - a pioneering attempt to quantify impacts of reactive and preventive adaptation strategies within one modeling framework at a regional scale. more

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Integrated modeling and qualitative analysis

As environmental problems do not respect disciplinary boundaries, integrated assessment modeling, pioneered by IIASA, is a useful adjunct to environmental policy analysis, integrating knowledge from more than one domain into a single framework. more

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International model intercomparison project, AMPERE

Within the framework of the AMPERE project, ENE in 2013 led the multi-model comparison effort involving international partners from Asia, the United States and Europe to evaluate the impact of near-term climate policies. more

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International model intercomparison projects

The Energy (ENE) Program has been at the forefront of several research efforts for the wider science community. These include the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) and two international model inter-comparison projects that were successfully completed in 2013 (EMF27 and AMPERE).  more

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Resilience of social systems

Similarly to ecosystems, social systems – from firms to countries – are becoming more and more subject to various stressors whose effects penetrate throughout the system by means of social ties and economic links. The external disturbances here may be of political, economic, financial and even environmental nature. more

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Risk Governance: Supporting transitions in climate and energy policy

In 2013 Risk, Policy and Vulnerability (RPV) researchers looked at multilevel governance approaches in climate and energy policy, the need for improved macroeconomic governance to promote sustainable development, and the importance of taking account of stakeholder inputs in the governance of the commons. more

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Risk management and climate adaptation

Managing the risks of climate change is part of a more generalized approach to promoting sustainable development by reducing the vulnerability associated with climate risk. In 2013 the Risk, Poverty and Vulnerability Program (RPV) looked at various aspects of minimizing risk ahead of adverse weather-related impacts, including extreme events.   more

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Solar energy systems

Risk, Policy and Vulnerability (RPV) analysts in 2013 looked at how the energy transition might be constrained by the vulnerability of solar energy systems to extreme event risks in a changing climate. more

Global


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UNEP Emissions GAP Re

Energy Program researchers Joeri Rogelj and Keywan Riahi were among the international team of 44 scientists convened to summarize implications of current national climate action plans in the UNEP Emissions GAP Report 2013. more

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Agent-based modeling

Research on further development of agent-based modeling techniques related to technology transitions continued in 2013 under the leadership of Tieju Ma. more

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A global perspective on air pollution

In 2013, the Mitigation of Air Pollution and Greenhouse Gases (MAG) Program achieved global coverage of its GAINS (Greenhouse gas – Air pollution Interactions and Synergies) tool for the systematic assessment of co-benefits strategies, in close collaboration with a large number of national teams. more

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A wider perspective on potential co-benefits

In a review paper, developed in cooperation with colleagues from the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies of Japan, scientists of the Mitigation of Air Pollution and Greenhouse Gases (MAG) Program argued that a multidisciplinary approach, involving the interplay with other policy objectives beyond air quality and climate, is needed to bring policies into line with current research on co-benefits. more

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Achieving the two-degree warming target

A paper by Energy (ENE) program researchers describes how different GHG emissions levels in 2020 would impact the feasibility of achieving the 2˚C target, based on the Copenhagen Accord of 2009, in the long-term. more

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Advances in solving optimal control problems

In 2013 the Advanced Systems Analysis (ASA) Program made several new contributions to the development of optimal control theory for managing socio-environmental systems within a modeling framework. more

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Advancing scientific understanding

To strengthen the scientific understanding of the physical basis for win-win options for development, air quality and climate change, the Mitigation of Air Pollution and Greenhouse Gases (MAG) Program contributed to a number of scientific assessments that were finalized in 2013, including a major assessment on black carbon. more

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Agro-Ecological Systems (AES)

In 2013 substantive progress was made in extending and validating the IIASA EPIC model for major crops in Europe and for assessing the biophysical impacts of a mean 2°C temperature rise. more

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Air pollution and health

In the area of air pollution and health, the Energy (ENE) Program intensified collaboration with the Mitigation of Air Pollution and Greenhouse Gases (MAG) Program at IIASA, the Joint Research Centre in Ispra, Italy (part of the European Commission), and Columbia University in the USA to explore the health benefits of climate and pollution control scenarios. more

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Basic technology research

Basic technology-related research in 2013 focused on empirical historical research on formative phases, technology scaling, and output measures of technological change - as well as prototyping new technology modeling approaches. more

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Climate assessment reports

Activities in 2013 built toward completion of the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) to which all senior Transitions to New Technologies (TNT) Program scientists are contributing. more

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Climate mitigation, negative emissions technology, and BECCS

The Ecosystems Services and Management (ESM) Program's Policy and Science Interface (PSI) team has been considering how to mitigate climate change through the use of carbon-neutral bio-energy (BE), combined with carbon capture and storage (CCS), to produce negative-emissions conditions. more

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Collaborative research

Collaborative research constituted an important element of the Transitions to New Technologies (TNT) Program research portfolio in 2013, both within IIASA, with the Advanced Systems Analysis (ASA) and Energy (ENE) programs, and with outside partners, particularly in connection with the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report. more

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Deep decarbonization pathways project (DDPP)

Energy (ENE) Program researchers Volker Krey, Nebojsa Nakicenovic, and Keywan Riahi were closely involved in the framing of the Deep Decarbonization Pathways Project (DDPP) of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network, which is charged with providing scientific input to the "World Leaders Summit" in New York in 2014. more

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Direct policy inputs

Energy (ENE) Program researchers have wide peer recognition in the public and private domain, serving the global science and energy communities in a personal capacity. more

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Empirical technology research

Empirical research by TNT in 2013 aimed at an elucidation of the early or so-called formative phases of technologies, on technology scaling analysis, and on alternative, output-based, measures of technological change.  more

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Energy policy analysis

In 2013 the Energy (ENE) Program conducted policy analyses in areas where the energy related challenges were greatest, for example, universal energy access. more

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Environmental resources and development (ERD)

The Ecosystems Services and Management (ESM) Program group on environmental resources and development (ERD) tackles the multiple interrelationships that exist between the natural environment and the human systems that actually or potentially affect it - population, land use, soil, water, chemicals, climate, crop management systems, and global trade. more

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Fifth Assessment Report, IPCC

In terms of impact, the results of all Energy (ENE) Program research activities underpin the transformational pathways analysis in the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which is expected be published in spring 2014. more

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Forest Ecosystem Management (FEM): Biomass studies

In 2013 the Forest Ecosystem Management (FEM) research group studied how to manage forests for maximization of forest stock and forest increment, as well as the availability of woody biomass for the energy sector. more

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Intercomparison EMF27

EMF27 was one of two international model inter-comparison projects that were successfully completed in 2013.  more

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Methodology developments

Methodological developments in 2013 have focused on two interrelated areas: uncertainty and energy technology diffusion.  more

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Methods for economic decision making under uncertainty (MEDU)

The Methods for Economic Decision making under Uncertainty (MEDU) group aims to develop and improve a wide spectrum of modeling methodologies, with an emphasis on economic incentives and mechanisms for mitigation and adaptation, including market solutions for implementing REDD-based measures and a special focus on decision making under uncertainty. more

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Model performance

The Advanced Systems Analysis (ASA) Program reviewed techniques available across various fields for characterizing the performance of environmental models with a focus on numerical, graphical, and qualitative methods. more

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Modeling flood risk

A major focus of risk modeling work in Risk, Policy and Vulnerability (RPV) has been on flood risk, which is often considered the dominant extreme event hazard. more

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Multiple objectives, tradeoffs, and games

In multiple objectives, trade-offs, and games, development of a user-friendly prototype software tool for Multiple-Criteria Model Analysis (MCMA) was completed, the co-benefits of key energy sustainability objectives were revealed, and decision-support system (DSS) with multiple objectives of energy users, producers, and legislative authorities were designed. more

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New studies map future climate impacts across sectors

The Methods for Economic Decision making under Uncertainty (MEDU) group contributed to the first results of the Inter-Sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project (ISI-MIP), a pioneering collaboration within the international scientific community. more

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Nitrogen management offers potential for win-win solutions

The Mitigation of Air Pollution and Greenhouse Gases (MAG) Program contributed to papers that highlight how the global nitrogen cycle could change in the 21st century and the extent to which this is reflected in the current set of global emission scenarios. more

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Optimal economic growth

The Advanced Systems Analysis (ASA) researchers in 2013 worked on developing new economic growth models capable of generating “green growth” and sustainable development solutions. more

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Outreach and dissemination

There was substantial outreach activity by the Transitions to New Technologies (TNT) Program in 2013 with respect to summarizing and disseminating previous multi-year research projects and assessment activities plus the editing of a book, three special journal issues, and publication of 40 articles and book chapters. more

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Policy and science interface (PSI)

The Ecosystems Services and Management (ESM) Program’s Policy and Science Interface (PSI) group aims to strengthen various aspects of the role played by the ESM research program in the climate and land use change-relevant community. more

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Progress on the SSPs

The joint work with IIASA’s Energy Program on the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) was completed at the beginning of 2013 and all the data was made available in the SSP Database on the IIASA website. more

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Research into energy poverty

In 2013 the work of the Energy (ENE) Program on energy poverty and access to clean modern forms of energy examined the broader linkages between energy services and economic development. more

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Risk modeling

Comprehensive modeling of the effects of climate change, including extreme events, by RPV  involves advanced techniques and takes into account stakeholder requests and needs.  more

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Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs)

Through its integrated assessment work, the Energy (ENE) Program has played a central role in shaping community-wide climate research activities, including the so-called Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs). more

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Simulations and agent-based modeling

In 2013 the Advanced Systems Analysis (ASA) Program carried out simulations of the actions and interactions of autonomous agents in order to assess their effects on systems as a whole. more

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Structural changes in time series

The Advanced Systems Analysis (ASA) Program in 2013 analyzed time series data of historic transitions to gain insights into how possible future transitions to sustainability might evolve. more

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Sustainable Development for All

The Energy (ENE) Program continued to inform the UN Secretary General’s Initiative on Sustainable Energy for All (SE4ALL) which intensified its activities in 2013. more

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Sustainable Forest Management - Certification

The Policy Science Interface (PSI) group of the Ecosystems Services and Management (ESM) Program worked with ESM's Earth Observation Systems (EOS) to develop a new methodology to support assessment of, and decision making for, future forest management certification. more

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Systemic risks and networks

The Advanced Systems Analysis (ASA) Program in 2013 looked at systems marked by interlinkages and interdependencies, where failure of one entity or a cluster of entities can cause a cascading failure capable of bringing down an entire system. more

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Technological change and diffusion

In collaboration with the Transitions to New Technologies (TNT) Program under a research contract and in collaboration with the Research Institute of Innovative Technology for the Earth, Japan, an endogenous model formulation for technology diffusion constraints was developed and parameterized. more

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Technology-scaling methodology and modeling

In collaboration with the Energy (ENE) Program and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact research (PIK), Germany, the Transitions to New Technologies (TNT) Program applied its new technology scaling methodology to climate policy scenarios. more

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The importance of governance

New global emission scenarios enable a fresh perspective on air pollution trends in different world regions, and in particular on the importance of proper governance for future air quality. more

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Woody biomass availability and sectoral competition

A new study, which analyzed future woody biomass resource availability plus sectoral competition for biomass for energy and material use, showed the key question for biomass energy use not to be the amount of resources available but rather their accessibility and thus their price. more

North America


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Education and environmental vulnerability

As part of a larger project, Forecasting Societies’ Adaptive Capacity to Climate Change, a Special Feature entitled Education and Differential Vulnerability to Natural Disasters was published in the journal, Ecology & Society. more

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Energy security

Research on energy security by the Energy Program (ENE) centers around applying the formal conceptual framework for evaluating energy security in long-term energy scenarios. The framework was established by ENE researcher Jessica Jewell in collaboration with colleagues from the Central European University (CEU, Hungary). more

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International model intercomparison project, AMPERE

Within the framework of the AMPERE project, ENE in 2013 led the multi-model comparison effort involving international partners from Asia, the United States and Europe to evaluate the impact of near-term climate policies. more

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International model intercomparison projects

The Energy (ENE) Program has been at the forefront of several research efforts for the wider science community. These include the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) and two international model inter-comparison projects that were successfully completed in 2013 (EMF27 and AMPERE).  more

Oceania


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International model intercomparison projects

The Energy (ENE) Program has been at the forefront of several research efforts for the wider science community. These include the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) and two international model inter-comparison projects that were successfully completed in 2013 (EMF27 and AMPERE).  more

South America


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International model intercomparison projects

The Energy (ENE) Program has been at the forefront of several research efforts for the wider science community. These include the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) and two international model inter-comparison projects that were successfully completed in 2013 (EMF27 and AMPERE).  more

Africa


Asia


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Index-based insurance against weather extremes in Mongolia

Veronika Bertram-Hümmer of the German Institute for Economic Research, Berlin, Germany, aimed to identify the determinants of index-insurance uptake before the harsh winter in Mongolia in 2009-2010 to discover whether index-insurance payouts enhanced household recovery following the disaster. more

Europe


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Index-based insurance against weather extremes in Mongolia

Veronika Bertram-Hümmer of the German Institute for Economic Research, Berlin, Germany, aimed to identify the determinants of index-insurance uptake before the harsh winter in Mongolia in 2009-2010 to discover whether index-insurance payouts enhanced household recovery following the disaster. more

Global


North America


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Decent living energy

Narasimha D. Rao discusses his two postdoctoral studies on i) quantifying the energy requirements for a given universal set of living standards in three developing countries and ii) using an integrated approach to explain income inequality.  more

South America


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Decent living energy

Narasimha D. Rao discusses his two postdoctoral studies on i) quantifying the energy requirements for a given universal set of living standards in three developing countries and ii) using an integrated approach to explain income inequality.  more


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Last edited: 10 April 2014

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