The German Environment Agency (UBA) is adopting the IIASA MESSAGEix framework to build up integrated assessment modeling capacity. The framework is primarily used for analyzing and designing energy systems and their interactions with the economy, the environment, and the society. On 10 December 2024, IIASA Director General, Hans Joachim (John) Schellnhuber and UBA representatives signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), paving the way for future cooperation.
The partnership between UBA and IIASA reflects the shared commitment of the two organizations to enhance research-to-policy and science-to-society activities. Through this partnership, they seek to broaden the scope of sustainability analysis possible with the MESSAGEix-framework, we well as share knowledge, ideas, and lessons learned. In addition, IIASA will support UBA in setting up and maintaining the required software-infrastructure for using the MESSAGEix-framework independently.
By leveraging their combined expertise, IIASA and UBA seek to enhance the transparency and the usability of the MESSAGEix framework for new users and stakeholders, including institutions from countries lacking the capability to use the framework without external help.
MESSAGEix is widely recognized for its ability to analyze the interplay between socio-economic and environmental systems, making it a critical asset for policy-driven sustainability research. The modeling framework and the results provide core inputs for major international assessments and scenarios studies, such as the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change (IPCC), the Network of Greening the Financial Sector (NGFS), the European Commission, and the Global Energy Assessment (GEA).
A workshop was organized at IIASA in Laxenburg to kick-start the new partnership. The workshop agenda and the following discussions focused on sufficiency and demand-side modeling, socio- and techno-economic development, macroeconomy, and open science approaches to integrated assessment modeling.
From the IIASA side, the workshop featured Integrated Assessment and Climate Change Research Group leader Volker Krey, Energy, Climate, and Environment Program director Keywan Riahi, and researchers Oliver Fricko, Fridolin Glatter, Aneeque Javaid, Siddharth Joshi, Jarmo Kikstra, Florian Maczek, Alessio Mastrucci, Measrainsey Meng, and Xiaoyang Zhong as speakers.
From the UBA side, Lukas Eggert, Kikan Nelle, and UBA project lead Niklas Roming provided an introduction to UBA's project goals and a review of the national scenario landscape for Germany.
UBA is the main environmental protection agency in Germany, which works on a broad spectrum of different environmental issues, including waste avoidance, climate protection, and pesticide approvals.
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