Seite - 29 - in options, Band winter 2014/2015

institute news 29winter 2014/2015 + optionswww.iiasa.ac.at news at iiasa UNIDO and IIASA strengthen ties UNIDO Director General Li Yong and IIASA Director General and CEO Pavel Kabat met at IIASA on 22 August. Talks centered on  the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding under which IIASA would develop analytical frameworks and tools to  assist UNIDO to shape its future multidimensional operations on poverty eradication. The new collaboration builds on  successful UNIDO–IIASA partnerships in energy research, such as the Global Energy Assessment and the Vienna Energy Forum. www.iiasa.ac.at/news/UNIDO-visit-14 Program evaluations In the past year IIASA’s distinguished external evaluation committee has evaluated six IIASA programs—Mitigation of Air Pollution and Greenhouse Gases; Energy; Transitions to New Technologies; World Population; Evolution and  Ecology; and Ecosystems Services and Management. The committee, drawn from an international and interdisciplinary cross-section of top academics, assessed each program’s goals and achievements under IIASA’s strategic plan and their policy impact. They also looked ahead at research plans and strategy for the next five years. www.iiasa.ac.at/events/evaluation-committee-14 IIASA meets Lower Austria IIASA Director General and CEO Pavel Kabat met with Dr. Petra Bohuslav, Lower Austrian Commissioner for Economics, in August at the Alpbach Technology Forum at a joint working session on bioenergy and renewable resources held by ecoplus, the Business Agency of the Province of Lower Austria. Discussions centered on how to strengthen cooperation between IIASA and the Province of Lower Austria in achieving the aims of a  zero-carbon society, given that both organizations have similar objectives. www.iiasa.ac.at/news/bohuslav Top global think tank IIASA has again been ranked as one of the top five think tanks for climate change economics and policy worldwide. The International Center for Climate Governance (ICCG) published the results of its 2013 “Climate Think Tank Ranking” of the most cutting-edge institutions working in the field of climate change economics and policy. IIASA ranked fifth in the world in the Standardized Ranking and third in the Absolute Ranking, out of 295 think tanks worldwide. www.iiasa.ac.at/news/ICCG-thinktank-14 T he second International Symposium for Next Generation Infrastructure (ISNGI) imagined resilient infrastructure systems that meet the needs of twice today’s world population with half of today’s resources, while providing better livability. Speakers at the symposium, held in Laxenburg this fall, emphasized that the future of infrastructure systems—transport, energy, water, waste, telecommunications, housing, social infrastructure, and green infrastructure—will be determined by two major “new” issues: (i) new technologies, which will reshape physical networks and services; and (ii)  new institutions, involving a multitude of decision makers, such as public policymakers, private investors, planners, operators and users, who will decide whether and how new technologies and services are adopted. Delegates emphasized the importance of understanding how the physical network interacts with decision making in the multi-actor network, and how the former might be influenced by institutional changes. Many of the interdependencies and interconnections that collectively make up the physical, economic, and social systems of cities and regions are incompletely known, said symposium participants. The symposium recognized that sophisticated analytical techniques and tools would be required to enhance the resilience of infrastructure, particularly given the mounting effects of global change, as infrastructure has already proven vulnerable to climate change, weather, and other extremes. One keynote speaker was Peter Bakker, President of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and a member of the new high-level Alpbach–Laxenburg Group. Bakker discussed how the scientific and business communities can work better together to improve their ability to achieve common goals. He stressed the importance of scientific research in setting the priorities for sustainable development, and for business then taking action. During the lecture, which is available to watch online, Bakker announced that the WBCSD, along with IIASA and the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, will organize a series of roundtables to identify the business and technological solutions to climate change and the potential barriers to such solutions. KP www.iiasa.ac.at/events/ISGNI-14 IIASA hosts major infrastructure symposium IIASA Photos | Matthias Silveri