TU Delft opens Climate Action Hub on Campus The Hague

On Friday 24 September TU Delft will open its Climate Action Hub in the Wijnhaven building on the Campus The Hague. The Climate Action Hub is a physical meeting place where administrators and policy makers, knowledge institutions, citizens and businesses can work together on concrete solutions to climate challenges. 

The Climate Action Hub is part of the TU Delft Climate Action Programme that started in April 2021. With this programme, TU Delft wants to take the lead in tackling climate change. To this end, the university is investing more in climate research and education, and stepping up its cooperation with societal partners. “We need to tackle the consequences of climate change jointly as a society,” says Professor Herman Russchenberg, chairman/scientific director of the Climate Action programme and TU Delft Pro Vice Rector Climate Action. “Within the Hub we can share knowledge widely and develop initiatives for and with administrators, policy makers, businesses and the general public.” One such initiative will be a postgraduate education programme on climate action.  

Campus The Hague

The Hague, city of peace, justice and security as well as political capital, was deliberately chosen as a  location for the Climate Action Hub. “We want to bring scientists, government and the public closer together, and The Hague is the right place to achieve this,” says Professor Behnam Taebi, Professor of Ethics of Energy and Climate Change. “We aim for better cooperation on climate issues with national and international policy makers, and with civil society, political organisations and the business community.” 
Although people do not yet associate The Hague with TU Delft, the university has been present at the Campus The Hague since 2015. It is where the Master's programme in Engineering and Policy Analysis is based, along with research groups that work at the intersection of ethics, social sciences, computer science and engineering on the major societal challenges of our time, including climate change. 

Opening programme

The opening of the Climate Action Hub will be celebrated with a hybrid programme, which can be attended both on location and via an interactive, online session. Rector Magnificus Tim van der Hagen will perform the official opening. Then, panel members will debate thought-provoking propositions on climate policy, including 'technology is going to save the world' and ' tackling climate change is too important to leave to politicians’. Sandor Gaastra, Director-General of Climate and Energy, will attend on behalf of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy, and Henk Ovink, Special Envoy for International Water Affairs, will attend on behalf of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management. Vice President Europe of the World Resources Institute Janneke de Vries will also be on the panel, as will Maarten van Aalst, professor at UT and director of the Red Cross Climate Centre and Marja Spierenburg, professor at Leiden University. Among the speakers from TU Delft are Professors Herman Russchenberg and Behnam Taebi.