Keywan Riahi

Keywan Riahi is an Austrian scientist and Director of Energy at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA). There, he contributes and advises on the United Nations (UN) 2030 climate agenda in the fields of science, technology, and innovation. He is also a Payne Faculty Fellow from the Colorado School of Mines and has held faculty positions at Graz University of Technology in Austria, University of Victoria in Canada, and University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands.

Riahi’s areas of expertise include economic development, sustainable development, energy, mathematics, engineering, and geosciences.

Education and career Keywan Riahi attended Graz University of Technology in Styria, Austria from 1989 to 1997 and earned a doctorate degree in Mechanical Engineering and Industrial Management. He completed his doctoral thesis on the role of long-term technological changes in energy systems including carbon capture and sequestration. After graduation, Riahi obtained teaching positions at the Graz University of Technology, Austria in 2012, the University of Amsterdam and the University of Victoria, Canada, both in 2016, and a fellowship position at the Payne Institute of the Colorado School of Mines in 2018.

Riahi began working with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in the late 1990s and served as a lead author. Starting in 2011, Riahi began working as a scientific committee member with Mitsubishi Electric Iconics Digital Solutions, formerly ICONICS, an automated software company working in fields such as renewable resources. In 2012, Clarivate recognized him as one of 23 researchers worldwide in their list of Highly Cited Researchers. In 2021, he became a member of the advisory board for the Schwarzenegger Climate Initiative, a climate awareness and advocacy group founded by Arnold Schwarzenegger to find solutions for climate issues. Beginning in 2022, Riahi became an advisor and senior expert for the Global Energy Interconnection Development and Cooperation Organization (GEIDCO), located in Beijing, an international non-profit focused on global renewable energy. Also in 2022, he became a co-chair of the Austrian Panel on Climate Change to work on their national climate reports. He contributed to IPCC reports three (2001), four (2007), five (2014), and six (2023). Riahi has also worked on IPCC special reports, including the reports on Emissions Scenarios, CO2 Capture, and Renewable Energy. These documents can be compared with SSPs to analyze the relationship between climate change and socioeconomic factors. SSPs are based on five narratives describing alternative socioeconomic development, including sustainable development, regional rivalry, inequality, fossil-fueled development, and middle-of-the-road development. This new framework led to the facilitation of an integrated analysis of future climate change impacts and how it relates to policy assumptions and socioeconomic narratives. The project was an innovative way to quantify energy development and uncertainties for greenhouse gases and air pollution.

Research projects Riahi has also worked on CD-LINKS, an effort to promote the international sharing of research and knowledge aimed at sustainable development and policy, as well as ENGAGE, an effort to reduce global emissions of greenhouse gases in accordance with the Paris Climate Agreement. The CD-Links project was a four-year project, spanning from September 2015 - September 2019, that brought together collaborators from around the world. This project focuses on geo-engineering and negative emission pathways throughout Europe to aid in carbon dioxide emission removal. Riahi serves as a principal investigator and leads the contribution of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis on the project. The focus of this project is to assess the direct and indirect components of land-based carbon fluxes to find mitigation techniques. IPCC assessed pathways provide land-use change data that can be analyzed in the GENIE Scenario Explorer as part of Riahi’s research on Direct-Air-Capture with Carbon Storage.

Policy advisory roles In 2021, Riahi was appointed to the United Nations (UN) advising group on science, technology, and innovation regarding the UN’s 2030 sustainable development goals. This panel focuses on integrated technology solutions to the energy, food, water, and climate crises. The panel primarily focused on sustainable development goals six, seven, and nine.

In 2022, Riahi was appointed to the European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change through the European Union and is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of Vienna, Austria. He also received a highly important European Research Council (ERC) Synergy grant for his work on the GENIE project. Additionally, he was listed by Reuters as the most influential climate scientist based on papers published, number of times cited, and public reach of work. Special Report on Emissions Scenarios (2000) The Shared Socioeconomic Pathways and their Energy, Land Use, and Greenhouse Gas Emissions Implications: An Overview Technological Learning for Carbon Capture and Sequestration Technologies (2004) Scenarios of long-term socio-economic and environmental development under climate stabilization Entry points for assessing 'fair shares' in national mitigation contributions

Significance and outlook Riahi's work seeks to demonstrate the importance of climate change by recognizing its various effects and finding implementable solutions. He has made significant contributions to the scientific and technological sides of climate research through his work on RCPs, IPCC reports, ENGAGE, and the GENIE project. His work on SSPs, inequality in development, research sharing among nations, and CD-LINKS has revolutionized interpretations connecting climate change and its effect with socioeconomic conditions, as well as provided new development and policy-making avenues seeking to tackle both issues simultaneously. Riahi has combined his technological and policy focuses through his roles at the UN. There, he has had a major impact in using technological solutions to address policy-making for the UN's sustainable development goals.

Riahi's outlook on the future believes that failing to act regarding climate change will have greater economic consequences than emission avoidance costs. He also believes that not all countries will have an equal burden in divesting from fossil fuels, hence his work on research sharing and inequality. Riahi's outlook requires a world that is committed to zero emissions, a sharing economy, renewable energy, and an electrification of demand systems. He foresees the development of utilities as resilience managers, ensuring there aren't stoppages in available electricity, as well as increased digitization to ensure a better connection of systems. Riahi also envisions a greater electrification of transportation services, as well as less car use, in ways that are beneficial to users and incentivize their use. Ultimately, he views the future as a joint effort that utilizes both technological and policy means to avoid the worst outcomes of climate change.