Scientific achievements

ENE highlights included the completion of the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways quantifications and analysis of transformation pathways for achieving the 1.5 and 2°C targets.

The program also examined the links between climate concerns and other aspects of sustainability. In particular, the Linking Climate and Development Policies - Leveraging International Networks and Knowledge Sharing (CD-LINKS) project was launched to study interactions between climate policy and other sustainable development objectives. A scoping study for an in-depth assessment of the Water-Energy-Land nexus was also completed.

The impact of energy access on poverty and equity was also a focus, and ENE won a European Research Council grant for Energy for Decent Living that assesses the energy needs and associated greenhouse gas emissions pathways of eradicating poverty in emerging economies. Several case studies on rural electrification and access to modern cooking fuels, were also undertaken, including an evaluation of the World Bank’s measurement framework for access to modern energy technologies.

Finally, ENE also made progress in behavioral modeling of the transport sector to assess key technological conditionalities and behavioral factors influencing the adoption of alternative fuel vehicles and carried out a political-economic analysis of the role of nuclear power.

Shared Socioeconomic Pathways

The Energy Program (ENE) continued to lead the field of socioeconomic scenarios for the integrated assessment of climate change. In 2015, a series of papers were submitted to a special issue of the journal Global Environmental Change, providing a detailed account of the main characteristics of five Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) and related integrated assessment scenarios. More

Envisioning deep decarbonization futures

The Energy Program (ENE) is a world leader in shaping scientific understanding of low-carbon futures. In 2015, ENE continued this work by producing multiple studies that quantify the geophysical constraints for deep decarbonization pathways in terms of carbon budgets, and by leading the first comprehensive review of 1.5°C scenarios. More

Linking climate and development policies

The project Linking Climate and Development Policies – Leveraging International Networks and Knowledge Sharing (CD-LINKS) kicked off in September 2015. CD-LINKS aims to study the links between climate policies and multiple sustainable development objectives. More

Decent Living Energy

The Energy Program (ENE) launched the Decent Living Energy project based on a European Research Council Starting Grant award in June 2015. This project assesses the energy needs and associated greenhouse gas emissions of eradicating poverty in key emerging economies. More

Energy Access

The Energy Program (ENE) is analyzing how improving access to modern energy technologies in developing countries can potentially improve human health and wellbeing. More

Water-energy-land nexus

The Energy Program (ENE) is leading the design of a new cross-cutting partnership to explore the environmental and development challenges related to the sustainable management of water, energy, and land. Under the partnership existing and new tools developed by multiple IIASA programs will be integrated into an assessment framework. More

Alternative-fuel vehicles

In the past, integrated assessment models have typically relied on average “per-capita characteristics” of consumers and have, therefore, fallen short in representing behavioral factors in a detailed way. The Energy Program’s MESSAGE modeling team has enhanced its treatment of these factors, focusing in particular on modeling decisions to purchase light-duty vehicles. More

Political economy of energy transitions

In this emerging area of research, the Energy Program (ENE) aims to advance the understanding of the political-economic dynamics of energy transitions and its variation between countries. This analysis determines the most effective strategies for national and international policy action. More

Online tools and resources

The successful online tools and resources (models and databases) developed jointly by the Energy (ENE) and Transitions to New Technologies (TNT) programs have been maintained and further expanded in 2015. More

Last edited: 13 May 2016