Seite - 2 - in options, Band winter 2014/2015

editorial 2 options + winter 2014/2015 options Professor Dr. Pavel Kabat Director General and CEO, IIASA About Options Options magazine features recent IIASA research and activities Executive editor Philippa Brooks Managing editor Katherine Leitzell Copy editor Kathryn Platzer Writers Philippa Brooks, Katherine Leitzell, Kathryn Platzer, Iain Stewart Contributing writers Judith Oliver, Jane Palmer Expert reviewers Joanne  Bayer, Edoardo  Borgomeo, Jesus  Crespo  Cuaresma, Ulf  Dieckmann, Delin  Fang, Brian  Fath, Christian  Folberth, Sabine  Fuss, Anne  Goujon, Nils  Johnson, Pavel  Kabat, Samir  KC, Adriana  Keating, Nikolay  Khabarov, Zbigniew  Klimont, Andrey  Krasovskii, Wie  Liu, Elke  Loichinger, Wolfgang  Lutz, Rupert  Mazzucco, Reinhard  Mechler, Raya  Muttarak, Nebojsa  Nakicenovic, Michael  Obersteiner, Amanda  Palazzo, Narasimha  Rao, Keywan  Riahi, Joeri  Rogelj, Elena  Rovenskaya, Sergei  Scherbov, Thomas  Schinko, Jan  Sendzimir, Karl  Sigmund, Vegard  Skirbekk, Laixiang  Sun, Fabian  Wagner, Larry  Willmore, Charlie  Wilson Copyright © 2014 IIASA ZVR 524808900 Prepared by IIASA Communications–Library–Media Department Head: Iain Stewart Printed by Remaprint, Vienna Options is sent to over 6,500 policymakers, diplomats, and scientists. If you would like to update your subscription preferences or subscribe to Options or other IIASA publications, please visit www.iiasa.ac.at/keepintouch. Sections of Options may be reproduced with acknowledgment to IIASA. Please send a copy of any reproduced material. The views and opinions expressed herein do not necessarily represent the positions of IIASA or its supporting organizations. About IIASA The International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, located near Vienna, Austria, is an international scientific institute that conducts policy-relevant research into problems too large or complex to be solved by a single country or academic discipline. IIASA’s scientists research + energy and climate change; + food and water; and + poverty and equity. IIASA produces + data, models, and research tools; + refereed scientific literature; and + policy-relevant information. IIASA helps + countries make better-informed policy; + develop international research networks; and + support the next generation of scientists. IIASA is funded and supported by scientific institutions and organizations in the following countries: Australia, Austria, Brazil, China, Egypt, Finland, Germany, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Pakistan, Republic of Korea, Russia, South Africa, Sweden, Ukraine, United States of America, Vietnam. IIASA A-2361 Laxenburg, Austria Phone +43 2236 807 0 Fax +43 2236 71313 E-mail info@iiasa.ac.at Web www.iiasa.ac.at facebook.com/iiasa twitter.com/iiasavienna linkedin.com/company/iiasa-vienna youtube.com/iiasalive blog.iiasa.ac.at I I A S A Keeping up to data Conceiving his first novel, This Side of Paradise, took three minutes, wrote F.  Scott Fitzgerald, but writing it took three months, and collecting the data for it had taken the whole of his life to date.Hardly an issue of Options goes by without a story about data: our search for  sources; the effort and expense involved in acquiring new data; mathematical techniques that scientists use to drill hidden information from existing data. Our cover story this issue is data-themed, as Oxford University Press publishes World Population and Human Capital in the 21st Century, edited by IIASA scientists led by World Population Program Director, Wolfgang Lutz. The new projections provide a fundamentally improved view  of future population, structured by age, sex, and level of education, which differ from recent projections by the United Nations. More than just  population numbers, the new book also includes specific projections for  population by age, sex, and education level, for 195 countries in the  world, from 2010 to 2100 (page  14). Also in this issue, you will read about a new interdisciplinary and intersectoral focus on inequality, the first topic to be tackled by the new Alpbach–Laxenburg Group established by IIASA and European Forum Alpbach in 2013. This group, from politics, business, science, civil society, and the arts, will rely on IIASA research to discuss sustainable solutions to persistent global problems (page 12). As covered in the last issue of Options, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate  Change (IPCC) Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) is now finally finished and  the Synthesis Report was published in November. I am proud of the 19 IIASA  researchers who made a funda mental contribution to the AR5 process. Four  IIASA researchers contributed to finalization of this synthesis report and participated in the plenary  session in Copenhagen. In 2015, IIASA will contribute in a major way to the scientific substantiation of the  international climate negotiations which should lead to an agreement in Paris. These efforts go hand in hand with IIASA scientific support to the establishment of  the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are to be agreed at the  UN  Secretary General’s General Assembly in September 2015. As part of this process, IIASA will launch a new project called World 2050 in close  collaboration with the Leadership Council of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network, which is chaired by Distinguished Visiting Fellow Jeff Sachs, and in collaboration with the Stockholm Environment Institute. This project will  be launched at IIASA in March 2015, and is aimed to be a major scientific substantiation to help guide and implement the SDGs. +