Page - 19 - in options, Volume summer 2021

In Israel, a country suffering from chronic water shortages, IIASA researchers are co-developing a water resources management tool with Israeli colleagues. In 2020, IIASA joined forces with SAS, a global leader in analytics, innovative software, and services, to help fight deforestation and protect the planet using the next generation of crowd-driven artificial intelligence (AI). Researchers created different scenarios of the effects of economic measures to tackle the COVID-19 crisis in Austria using a novel economic model developed at IIASA. IIASA works with the Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change in India (MoEFCC) to develop tools to assist Indian government agencies in evaluating targets for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). An IIASA-led study used systems analysis methods to measure trade interdependencies between US states and found that the country’s current food supply chain is often not optimized for using available natural resources. IIASA is providing modeling support to Argentina, China, and India to develop their Long-term Climate Targets (LTS) and Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to the Paris Agreement with the objective of strengthening climate related policymaking, while simultaneously strengthening the capacities in local institutions to carry forward this work. An IIASA-led study found that to ensure universal access to affordable, reliable, and modern electricity services in sub-Saharan Africa by 2030, the pace of electrification must more than triple. Using a new analytical tool capable of simulating an optimal mix of public fund allocations and financial protection instruments for disaster risk reduction, IIASA researchers collaborated with colleagues in Japan to support the systematic analysis of public investment decisions in vulnerable African countries. IIASA provided essential support in the development of the EU’s Second Clean Air Outlook through model calculations carried out with the IIASA GAINS model. NatureMap, an integrated global map of biodiversity, carbon storage, and other nature services, is now being applied in several countries, including Brazil, Indonesia, and Mexico. The work will contribute to decision making at the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Climate Change COPs taking place in China and the UK respectively. IIASA researchers are assisting with the development of a National Forestry Accounting Plan and Forest Reference Levels for Iceland and Norway. www.iiasa.ac.at 19