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© M .S ilv e ri | IIA S A © M .S ilv e ri | IIA S A IIASA corner Kian Mintz-Woo participated in the IIASA Young Scientists Summer Program (YSSP) in 2018 and is currently a guest researcher in the Equity and Justice Research Group of the Population and Just Societies Program. He is also a permanent lecturer at University College Cork in Ireland. Mintz-Woo researches how to think about policies for just transitions. Mitigating climate change involves large changes in society, but it is important to think through how these changes can occur while respecting both procedural and distributive justice. “We have to respect the views of different groups in society, including marginalized people, as well as consider the outcomes for those who have most to lose. This builds on work I did on pricing in the benefits and burdens of climate change. Although the costs of climate change are large, some regions and professions may benefit,” he explains. Mintz-Woo has been engaging with the public through interviews for newspapers on the most recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). He has also coauthored an opinion about carbon taxes, and written short essays for the Irish national broadcaster RTÉ (including a video interview). He states, “I think public engagement is important for two reasons. First, many people are concerned about climate change, but few people talk about climate change. By bringing it more into the public domain, we can recognize that we care about it. Second, I think it is important that we communicate science to the public to demonstrate the relevance and value of science.” Dilek Fraisl researches how citizen science can provide data needed to monitor progress on the UN Sustainable Goals (SDGs). Fraisl’s interest in alternative data sources developed after joining IIASA in March 2016 as a researcher working with citizen science. Previously, her research was around sustainability issues and she was aware that many countries, particularly developing countries, struggle to put together the data needed to measure progress towards sustainable development. Identifying how alternative data sources like citizen science can bridge these gaps and applying these approaches to complement official statistics and monitor the SDGs, has been the focus of her research at IIASA. “Our research has shown that citizen science has the potential to contribute to all 17 SDGs and that around 33% of the SDG indicators could be supported through citizen science initiatives. These findings have generated a lot of interest among policy- and decision makers responsible for developing and implementing the global indicator framework for the SDGs and their targets,” she explains. To facilitate the use of citizen science in the implementation and monitoring of the SDGs, Fraisl has been part of efforts to establish a network-of- networks aimed at offering a coordinated point of entry for governments and business partners seeking to collaborate with the global citizen science community. “We have been working with the global citizen science community to establish the Global Citizen Science Partnership, which is hosted at IIASA. Through this initiative, we will be able to provide tools, procedures, guidelines, and data for citizen science to facilitate effective engagement with the SDGs,” she adds. Thinking about policies for just transitions Achieving sustainable development with better data People profiles Kian Mintz-Woo: mintzwoo@iiasa.ac.at Dilek Fraisl: fraisl@iiasa.ac.at By Monika Bauer By Rachel Potter www.iiasa.ac.at30 Options Winter 2021