Climate change is a defining feature of life on Earth today. Efforts to both mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and to adapt to the impacts of rising global temperatures are urgently required. Human populations are at the centre of these processes. Over the last 150 years, human activities and the burning of fossil fuels for heating, transportation, electricity, economic expansion and food production have led to anthropogenic climate change. Population size nevertheless matters less for human impacts on the climate and other earth systems as compared to affluence and consumption, which vary widely across the planet.
The impacts of climate change are also not distributed evenly across time, space and different population subgroups. Those born today are far more likely to experience extreme weather events in their lifetimes compared to their parents and grandparents. Moreover, the impacts of climate change will be more serious for places or people who are already vulnerable (e.g. because of poor health, low level of education, or low income) with limited capacity and resources to cope with and adapt to these changes.
Demographic heterogeneity is thus critical to climate change mitigation and adaptation. This calls for an understanding of the heterogeneous contributions of populations to climate change, as well as the differential vulnerabilities to future climate impacts. These close reciprocal relationships between population and climate change makes demography a highly relevant discipline in providing evidence-based policy solutions to building sustainable and resilient societies.
The Wittgenstein Centre Conference 2022 aims to bring together researchers from around the world, focusing on demography and climate change from diverse perspectives, including - but not limited - to demography, economics, sociology, environmental sciences and geography.
It's planned to hold the conference in a hybrid format.
A special issue of the peer-reviewed Vienna Yearbook of Population Research will be dedicated to the topic of this conference. Authors will be invited to publish their presented papers in this platinum open-access journal.
Conference Venue & General Information
The conference will take place in the main building of the
Austrian Academy of Sciences
Dr. Ignaz Seipel-Platz 2, 1010 Vienna, Austria,
as well as via zoom.
The conference venue is centrally located and close to subway lines U1 („Schwedenplatz“ and „Stephansplatz“), U3 („Stephansplatz“ and „Stubentor“) and U4 („Schwedenplatz“).
For your individual hotel booking we would like to make you aware of hotels with The Austrian Ecolabel.
Conference Organisers at the Wittgenstein Centre for Demography and Global Human Capital (IIASA, OeAW, University of Vienna)
Roman Hoffmann (IIASA)
Raya Muttarak (University of Bologna)
Shonali Pachauri (IIASA)
Jonas Peisker (IIASA)
Erich Striessnig (University of Vienna)
Andrea Tamburini (VID, Austrian Academy of Sciences)
Contact
If you have any questions regarding the conference, please contact conference.vid@oeaw.ac.at