Air Quality and Greenhouse Gases

The IIASA systems approach to air quality and greenhouse gas management is a unique example of a successful science-policy interface shaping global, regional, and national policies. Pioneering, interdisciplinary research into the interplay between rural and urban air pollution will provide the badly needed evidence to support measures that deliver local and near-term benefits while also contributing to global and long-term policy targets.

Objectives
  • Develop an integrated approach relevant for urban policymakers in industrialized and developing countries, with intuitive user-interfaces for decision makers and stakeholders not trained in systemic air quality management.
  • Quantify the interplay between urban and rural air pollution, considering the physical exchange of pollution in the atmosphere, diversity in emission sources, health impacts, and social factors.
  • Analyze the drivers and sources of air pollution and their impacts on design policy interventions that deliver benefits to different social groups and economic sectors.
  • Establish a new urban management tool for practical policy analyses in a variety of cities in industrialized and developing countries.
  • Connect the new urban analysis tool with the global Greenhouse Gas and Air Pollution Interactions and Synergies (GAINS) tool to explore the regional and global effects of urban decisions.
  • Quantify the contributions of specific policy interventions in achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Top image © Aizuddin Saad | Shutterstock

Selected highlights

Oil production releases more methane than previously thought

Oil production releases more methane than previously thought

      A new study from the IIASA Air Quality and Greenhouse Gases Program, which for the first time takes into account different production management systems and geological conditions around the world, shows that global methane and ethane emissions...

Meeting ambitious climate mitigation targets

Meeting ambitious climate mitigation targets

Research shows that reducing the emissions of short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs) will play an important role in meeting the 2°C target of the Paris Agreement. Although these emissions will be partially reduced as a consequence of carbon dioxide (CO2) mitigation,...

Weighing up the costs of keeping cool

Weighing up the costs of keeping cool

      In October 2016, a global decrease in the use of certain greenhouse gases commonly used in a number of industries across the globe was agreed under the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol. A new study by the IIASA Air Quality and Greenhouse...