By invitation of the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, IIASA’s Nebojsa Nakicenovic participated in the UN Leadership Forum on Climate Change (New York, 22 Sept). The Forum, attended by world leaders in government and business, aims to identify solutions for climate change mitigation and adaptation, specifically: food and water security; energy solutions; financing; and disaster and risk reduction, to take forward to the COP15 negotiations in Copenhagen.

Total greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions proposed by industrialized countries fall short of the pathway to reaching a two degree target as referred to by the UNFCCC Kyoto Protocol negotiating group, while the cost of meeting these pledges is much lower than anticipated. The findings, derived from the IIASA GAINS model, are contained in a new report released by IIASA. More.

IIASA research in climate change, energy perspectives, and adaptation and vulnerability, are reflected in the World Bank's World Development Report 2010: A copy of the report, released ahead the COP15 meeting, states that if advanced countries act now to reduce their carbon footprint and adopt alternative energy sources it will be economically feasible to tackle climate change. Nebojsa Nakicenovic also served on the report’s Advisory Panel.

An international Conference on the Evolution of Cooperation — Models and Theories has attracted some of the world’s leading evolutionary theorists. From September 15 - 18, 130 scientists from fifteen countries discussed complementary approaches to evolutionary problems related to the social dilemmas surrounding human cooperation. The event, organized and hosted by IIASA, is part of the European Science Foundation’s Evolution of Cooperation and Trading Programme.