Future Outlook on the “The World in 2050” Initiative (TWI2050)

Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES), the Japan Committee of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), the National Institute for Environmental Studies, Japan (NIES), and United Nations University Institute of Advanced Studies (UNU-IAS) co-organized a seminar to raise awareness of and enhance collaboration on The World in 2050 (TWI2050) Initiative among the Japanese research community.

The World in 2050 (TWI2050) is a global research project developed to support the successful implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The goal of TWI2050 is to help answer these questions on various agenda, provide science and fact-based knowledge for sustainable transformation, and support the policy process for achievement of the SDGs. In order to achieve these 17 goals, the project aims to assess synergies and trade-offs and to provide possible pathways for an integrated approach to transformational challenges.

TWI2050 was launched by the IIASA in collaboration with the Stockholm Resilience Centre, the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) and other institutions. Aiming to contribute to policy-making, it features science-policy coordination projects between policy experts and modelling analysis teams. Currently, a number of major research institutes in the world take part in the project, including the National Institute of Environmental Studies (NIES), Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) and the Research Institute of Innovative Technology for the Earth (RITE) from Japan.

This seminar deepened discussion on both current and future collaboration with TWI2050 Initiative, inviting Dr. Nebojsa Nakicenovic, Deputy Director of IIASA, who has been promoting this project together with leading research institutions around the world. This seminar was held as part of SDG dialogue series of UNU-IAS.

* The International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)
IIASA was founded in 1972 as an international research organisation made up of supporting organisations / institutions of 17 countries including Japan. IIASA has become one of the world’s leading international research institutes, with specialists including recipients of the Nobel Prize as well as IPCC lead authors. Japan has contributed to operation of IIASA and its research activities.