Vulnerability, Adaptation and Mitigation

Allocations

VAM Essays

The Programme committee VAM therefore decided to spend a small portion of the VAM budget on essays by various experts within the social, legal and behavioural sciences to examine the impact of an extreme climate event (leaving aside the issue of the probability of such an event). The climate of Northern Europe is much warmer than other places at similar latitudes not benefited by the warm currents of the North Atlantic (the Atlantic Gulfstream). This is caused by the so called thermohaline circulation (THC). Some analysts think that sufficient greenhouse gas forcing, applied sufficiently fast, could trigger a collapse of the THC.
As a result of such a weakening or collapse of the THC, a rapid cooling effect might occur in especially North Western Europe causing a possible temperature drop of 4 °C in the coming 15-30 years. The central theme now is which impacts West-European societies can expect when such a sudden climate change event occurs, and how they can respond to it. The Programme committee VAM invited the following experts to write an essay on this theme from their particular disciplinary perspective.

  • Dr. Jeroen Aerts - Senior Researcher Institute for Environmental Studies(IVM), Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
    Drs. L.M. Bouwer – Researcher Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
    Meridional overturning circulation collapse: learning about impacts and coping mechanisms from cooling analogues
  • Prof. dr. Pim Martens - chair 'Sustainable Development' at Maastricht University and director of ICIS (International Centre for Integrated assessment and Sustainable development) and SENSE (School for Socio-Economic and Natural Sciences of the Environment)
    Dr. Bas Amelung - Researcher Maastricht University
    Societies’ Common Cold: Exploring the Linkages Among THC-collapse, Abrupt Climate Change, and Human health and Well-being.
  • Prof.dr.ir. Arthur Mol – Chair of Environmental Policy Group at Wageningen University
    Dr. ir. Jan P.M. van Tatenhove - Associate Professor, Environmental Policy Group, Wageningen University
    Coping with extreme events
  • Mr. dr. Marjan Peeters – Senior Researcher environmental law at Maastricht University
    Véronique Bruggeman LL.M – Researcher Maastricht University
    The role of the government in the case of damages caused by rapid climate change in Northwestern Europe: a view on taking a precautionary or a reactionary approach
  • Prof. dr. ir. Jan Rotmans - Scientific Director of DRIFT (Dutch Research Institute for Transitions at the Erasmus University Rotterdam)
    Transition research into the consequences of rapid climate change
  • Prof. dr. Ekko van Ierland - Chair in Environmental Economics at Wageningen University
    The slowdown of the North Atlantic gulf stream: an economic perspective on adaptation

The essays were published in the book 'What if...?' in 2008

VAM synthesis

The Programme committee VAM has invited Prof. dr. Pim Martens to write a synthesis of the VAM programme and edit a volume that will include this synthesis, the results of the 13 VAM-projects, and the 6 papers on the consequences of rapid climate change. This book will be published in the fall of 2010.

VAM Projects

The Programme committee VAM has granted 13 proposals in 2004/2005. The available budget was ± M€ 2,5. The themes of the programme Vulnerability, Mitigation, Adaptation en Adaptation-plus-mitigation are well covered by these granted projects. Within the social, legal and behavioural sciences these projects cover multiple disciplines such as economics, law, sociology, public administration, geography, environmental studies and psychology. The granted projects started in 2005 and the beginning of 2006.

For more information on the granted projects see:

last modified on 28 June 2010