Global Energy Assessment

The Global Energy Assessment (GEA) is a major initiative established by IIASA in late 2005 to help decision makers address the challenges of providing energy services for sustainable development, whilst ameliorating existing and emerging threats associated with: security of supply; access to modern forms of energy for development and poverty alleviation; local, regional and global environmental impacts; and securing sufficient investment.

Addressing these issues simultaneously to achieve the multiple objectives of sustainable development in both developing and industrialized countries requires detailed knowledge based on comprehensive and integrated analysis of energy challenges. The GEA responds directly to this need and, by doing so, will go well beyond existing authoritative studies on energy-related issues, which have generally provided only limited integrated analysis of the range of potentially competing energy objectives. This unique approach will ensure that the GEA plays a critical role in reducing the risk that energy-related decision-making and implementation by governments, investors, enterprises and intergovernmental organizations will be ineffective.

The GEA will provide a strong technical and scientific basis for decision-making by evaluating the range of social, economic, development, technological, environmental, security and other issues linked to energy. In addition, the GEA will identify options for the way forward­-both on a global and regional level­-and inform policymakers, the business and investment sector, and society at large, on the key opportunities and challenges facing the global energy system on the road to longer-term sustainable development. The GEA will target the needs of a range of stakeholders, providing policy-relevant analysis and capacity-enhancing guidance to national governments and intergovernmental organizations, decision-support material to the commercial sector (energy service companies, investors and others) and analysis relevant to academic institutions.

The GEA will be a major activity spanning a number of years, and will be produced by bringing together leading international experts from academia, business, governments and intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, selected from throughout the world. See the detailed GEA Proposal for more details.