Introduction

The Earth and Life Sciences (ALW) and Social Sciences (MaGW) launched a programme to accommodate the wishes of VROM, i.e. the programme "Vulnerability, Adaptation and Mitigation" (VAM) . The programme has run from 2004 up until 2010. The programme consisted of one subsidy round in which 2,5 million euros was reserved for high quality research. Apart from a number of PhD-projects that have to be concluded, the research is done. In August / September 2010 a book is published in which prof. Pim Martens will make a synthesis of the most important scientific results of the VAM programme.

Until recently, the majority of Dutch climate research was part of the National Research Programme (NRP), which ran parallel to NWO research funding. NRP-2 came to an end in 2001. As a follow-up to NRP-2, the Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment (VROM) and NWO entered into an agreement to cooperate in the "National Research Programme on Climate Change" (NRP CC) . The previous climate research programmes (NRP-1 and NRP-2) were based on scenarios of gradual climate change. Recent research suggests, however, that rapid climate change, in the nature of a change within a few decades (20-30 years), cannot be ruled out. Both aspects – extreme events and rapid climate change – have barely been investigated within the social sciences and are therefore particularly relevant for determining the details of vulnerability, adaptation and mitigation.

In the VAM programme the themes were more oriented towards social and behavioural sciences than in the earlier NRP programmes. VAM focused on research into the social and behavioural aspects of climate change, particularly within and in cooperation between public administration, geography, environmental economics, socio-cultural sciences, environmental law, psychology and other disciplines. The programme was not intended for biological and ecological research.

The VAM themes

1. Vulnerability; can be seen as the extent to which health, economy and nature and biodiversity will be affected as a result of a certain climatic change.
2. Adaptation; means adapting to a changed or changing climate, and covers local, national and global aspects. Adaptation is intended to reduce the vulnerability of systems.
3. Mitigation; this term can be explained in various ways. Sometimes it is seen as the avoidance of climate change, whatever strategy may be followed. This may include a reduction in the emission of greenhouse gases. Another choice would be to clearly separate mitigation from reduction. Mitigation is then limited to the neutralisation of greenhouse emissions which have already been produced, such as storing CO2 underground or absorbing it by planting forests.
4. Adaptation-plus-mitigation; adaptation and mitigation are not alternatives for each other. They form two complementary, parallel tracks in climate policy. Mitigation is the only fundamental solution for the climate problem, but adaptation is necessary in order to withstand the inevitable consequences of climate change.

While "adaptation" sounds reasonably specific, it is a very comprehensive term which is difficult to conceptualise and analyse. One important question is how adaptation to climate change can be fitted into mainstream development policy and projects. As for mitigation it is important to realise that the core of international climate policy is formed by the details and policy of mitigation, although the acceptance of transfers for the purpose of adaptation can be functional in this. Therefore the development of adaptation and mitigation scenarios in the event of rapid and extreme manifestations of climate changes, and the related costs and acceptance issues, can represent an interesting scientific challenge.

For more information about the VAM-projects, see under 'allocations'.