News for journalists | 2017

Story ideas, media briefings, and press releases specifically for media. On a deadline? Contact our press office at press@iiasa.ac.at.

02 October 2017
Win-win strategies for climate and food security

Efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the agriculture and forestry sectors could lead to increased food prices—but new research identifies strategies that could help mitigate climate change while avoiding steep hikes in food prices.  More

26 September 2017
Land, forest, and cropland data now available

Three new data sets, developed with input from citizen scientists and the IIASA scientific network, have been fully documented and published in a new Nature open access journal.  More

19 September 2017
Citizen science targets land-use change in Austria

FotoQuest GO—a citizen science campaign aimed at collecting observations of land use and land cover across Austria—launches this week. Researchers hope it will bring a leap forward in community-based land-use change monitoring.  More

18 September 2017
5,000 deaths annually from dieselgate in Europe

Excess emissions from diesel cars cause about 5,000 premature deaths annually across Europe, a new study shows.  More

18 September 2017
New hopes for limiting warming to 1.5°C

Significant emission reductions are required if we are to achieve one of the key goals of the Paris Agreement, and limit the increase in global average temperatures to 1.5°C, a new study warns.  More

21 August 2017
Before the flood: What drives preparedness?

More targeted efforts are needed from both the public and private insurance sectors in order to encourage people to take action to reduce their risk of flood damage, according to a new study of three European countries.  More

27 June 2017
Safeguarding sustainability through forest certification mapping

How can we ensure forest protection and sustainable forest biomass production at the same time? A first-ever global map of certified forest areas, based on a participatory and collaborative mapping approach, contributes to the answer.  More

22 June 2017
Mathematical confirmation: Rewiring financial networks reduces systemic risk

A proposed tax on systemically risky financial transactions could reduce the risk of financial system crashes by spurring financial networks to reshape in more resilient ways.  More

21 June 2017
An end to population aging in China, Germany, USA

New measures of aging, combined with UN population projections, show that population aging is likely to end before 2100 in China, Germany, and the USA.  More

15 June 2017
Water management interventions push scarcity downstream

Human interventions to harness water resources, such as reservoirs, dams, and irrigation measures, have increased water availability for much of the global population, but at the same time, swept water scarcity problems downstream.  More

12 June 2017
Optimal harvests without top-down planning

From the air, Bali’s rice terraces look like colorful mosaics, because farmers plant their fields at different times. A new study shows that the resulting fractal patterns actually lead to optimal harvests, without overarching management.  More

06 June 2017
Ambiguous pledges leave large uncertainty under Paris climate agreement

Emission reduction pledges made by individual countries under the Paris Agreement leave a wide range of possible climate outcomes, according to new research. Without stronger pledges, the study shows, the climate goals may not be possible to achieve.  More

15 May 2017
Excess diesel emissions bring global health and environmental impacts

Excess NOx emissions from diesel engines have been linked to approximately 38,000 premature deaths worldwide in 2015—mostly in the European Union, China, and India.  More

11 May 2017
Vienna Energy Forum to contribute to successful implementation of SDGs and Paris Agreement

The discussion at this year’s Vienna Energy Forum served as an important contribution to the debate and review of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris climate agreement and their successful implementation, said participants at the event taking place in the capital of Austria.  More

10 May 2017
Acting now on climate could bring multiple benefits for sustainable development

Fast action on near-term warming will provide many potential benefits to achieving the global Sustainable Development Goal, according to new research from scientists at IIASA, in the USA and Europe.  More

28 April 2017
Citizen science campaign to aid disaster response

For the next few weeks researchers are testing a new system to aid disaster damage mapping, providing much-needed real-time data to help communities recover and rebuild after disaster.  More

27 April 2017
Synthetic gas would cut air pollution but worsen climate damage in China

For China, synthetic natural gas represents a trade-off between reducing air pollution, but increasing greenhouse gas emissions, according to new IIASA research conducted in collaboration with scientists in China and the USA.  More

13 April 2017
Next ten years critical for achieving climate change goals

In order to have a good chance of meeting the limits set by the Paris Agreement, it will be necessary to both reduce greenhouse gas emissions while preserving carbon sinks, with net emissions peaking in the next ten years, according to a new study.  More

07 April 2017
New ERC grant to explore human wellbeing as criterion for sustainable development

IIASA World Population Program Director Wolfgang Lutz has received a new grant from the European Research Council. Lutz is scientific director of the Vienna Institute of Demography (VID) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (OeAW), and professor of applied statistics at the Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU). These institutions are part of the Wittgenstein Center, which Lutz leads.  More

05 April 2017
Small and medium farms are essential to sustain quality of global food supply

Small and medium farms produce more than half of the food globally, and produce the vast majority of food and nutrients in low income countries, according to a new study that maps global nutrient production from farms worldwide.  More

05 April 2017
Wealth, culture, and cost affect household appliance purchases

As incomes rise, people buy more big appliances like washing machines, refrigerators, and televisions. But the link between income and appliance ownership is more complicated than is assumed.  More

29 March 2017
Global food supply at risk from agricultural misuse of nonrenewable water

The rising use of unsustainable water supplies by international food producers is putting global food and water supplies at risk and could cause basic food prices to skyrocket, suggests a new study from international researchers.  More

27 March 2017
New international banking rules would not prevent another financial crisis

The Basel III regulatory framework, as planned, will not reduce systemic risk in the financial sector, according to new research. Instead, regulations should aim to increase the resilience of financial networks.  More

09 March 2017
Investment key in adapting to climate change in West Africa

Climate change will likely have negative impacts on food production in West Africa, but a new study provides insights on how strategic planning by decision makers could ease or exacerbate food security challenges in the region.  More

07 March 2017
Traveling droughts bring new possibilities for prediction

Droughts can travel hundreds to thousands of kilometers from where they started, like a slow-moving hurricane. A new study sheds light on how these droughts evolve in space and time, bringing vital new insight for water managers.  More

06 March 2017
How nature creates forest diversity

Forest ecologists have long sought to understand why so many different species of trees can coexist in the same niche. A modeling study is now providing clues.  More

01 March 2017
Climate research needs greater focus on human populations

How climate change will affect future populations will depend to a great extent on people’s capacity to adapt to changing conditions. Such characteristics can be forecast in the long term, using well-established demographic methods, say IIASA researchers.  More

16 February 2017
Preferential trade agreements enhance global trade at the expense of its resilience

The global commodity trade is a complex system where its network structure, which may arise from bilateral and multilateral agreements, affects its growth and resilience. At time of economic shocks, redundancy in this system is vital to the resilience of growth.  More

13 February 2017
Living standards lag behind economic growth

Even as average incomes rise in developing countries, access to sanitation and clean energy have yet to reach the poorest people, a new study shows. But there is room for optimism.  More

03 February 2017
Study traces black carbon sources in the Russian Arctic

Transport and residential heating could be responsible for a greater contribution of black carbon in the Russian Arctic compared to gas flaring or power plants, according to new research.  More

01 February 2017
Oil production releases more methane than previously thought

Emissions of methane and ethane from oil production have been substantially higher than previously estimated, particularly before 2005.  More

16 January 2017
Trade-offs between economic growth and deforestation

In many developing countries, economic growth and deforestation seem to go hand in hand—but the links are not well understood. In a new study, researchers use an innovative methodology to quantify the relationship.  More

13 January 2017
Bioenergy policy with forest protection better for climate mitigation

Greenhouse gas emissions from the land-use sector will be lower if the rising demand for bioenergy is met with worldwide protection for areas important for biodiversity and carbon storage.  More

11 January 2017
Grasslands hold potential for increased food production

Managing grazing on grasslands in a more efficient way could significantly increase global milk and meat production or free up land for other uses.  More

09 January 2017
Tool helps cities to plan electric bus routes, and calculate the benefits

An IIASA model helped inform a new tool for cities to optimize electric bus systems, which has now been used in Sweden’s first wireless charging bus system, launched in December.  More

09 January 2017
Changing rainfall patterns linked to water security in India

Changes in precipitation, which are linked to the warming of the Indian Ocean, are the main reason for recent changes in groundwater storage in India.  More


Print this page

Last edited: 23 January 2019

IIASA on Twitter

International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)
Schlossplatz 1, A-2361 Laxenburg, Austria
Phone: (+43 2236) 807 0 Fax:(+43 2236) 71 313