Page - 17 - in options, Volume winter 2015/2016

17winter 2015/2016 + optionswww.iiasa.ac.at on Sustainable Development, held in conjunction with the SDG  summit at the UN in September. And at the European Forum Alpbach—a major annual meeting of international decision makers—in August, IIASA researchers held in-depth discussions with the Alpbach–Laxenburg Group (ALG), a  reflection group made up of world leaders from government, business, and  science. The ALG emphasized that the development and adoption of the SDGs is just the beginning and that the focus should now be on implementation. Following the meeting, IIASA Director General and CEO Professor Dr. Pavel Kabat said, “There has been a great deal of work on forming the SDGs which has led us to where we are today, but now there is still much to be done to ensure they are implemented successfully to enable a sustainable future for all.” The group also emphasized the vital role of measurement and accountability in tracking progress towards the goals, a  point also highlighted in a recent article in the journal Nature, in  which Nakicenovic and colleagues argued that data gathering and evaluation will require coordinated effort from the global  scientific community. As a next step, the SDGs will need to be translated into national-level roadmaps, based on each country’s different starting points and targets. Another new IIASA research project, Linking Climate and Development Policies: Leveraging International Networks and Knowledge Sharing (CD-LINKS), brings the research to a national level through modeling and stakeholder consultations. The core objective of CD-LINKS is to develop transformation pathways, that is, potential storylines that show how climate change mitigation could occur in conjunction with other sustainable development objectives—including economic development, energy poverty, air quality, water, food security, biodiversity, climate adaptation, and energy security—and what trade-offs and synergies will emerge between the goals. IIASA researcher David McCollum, who is working on the project, says, “The SDGs provide aspirational goals. It’s up to each country to decide how to get there, and each will do it in a different way. That’s  where the CD-LINKS project comes in—it  will provide information that can be used to make plans of action, with specifics about what options are available where.” While the SDGS may seem an overwhelming topic to address, researchers working on these issues say they find the challenge inspiring. “Nobody has the answers to these problems at this point, but I find it so important that these goals are in place,” says Johnson. “They provide a context under which people can begin to identify and evaluate sustainable solutions.” “When looking at 17 different goals and 169 indicators, it’s  difficult for the human brain to keep track of all the interactions. This is precisely where IIASA’s systems approach to modeling and analysis can provide the necessary scientific support for policy,” adds  McCollum. KL Further info § Lu Y, Nakicenovic N, Visbeck M, Stevance A-S (2015). Five priorities for the UN  Sustainable Development Goals. Nature 520(7548):432–433 [doi:10.1038/520432a]. § UNEP (2015). Policy Coherence of the Sustainable Development Goals – A  Natural Resource Perspective. An International Resource Panel Report. [issuu.com/newshourbd/docs/-policy_coherence_of_the_sustainabl/1] § The World in 2050 [www.iiasa.ac.at/TWI2050] § Integrated Solutions for Water, Energy, and Land [www.iiasa.ac.at/NexusSolutions] § CD Links project [www.cd-links.org] § Alpbach Laxenburg Group [www.iiasa.ac.at/ALG] Nebojsa Nakicenovic naki@iiasa.ac.at § Pavel Kabat kabat@iiasa.ac.at Michael Obersteiner oberstei@iiasa.ac.at § Nils Johnson johnsonn@iiasa.ac.at David McCollum mccollum@iiasa.ac.at § Brian Walsh walsh@iiasa.ac.at