Climate Action Programme


The Climate Action Programme was launched in 2021 and functions as a community for climate action on the TU Delft campus and beyond. We coordinate various events, activities and functions, providing a central platform for climate related research, education and innovation at TU Delft. Through these efforts, we help to bring to fruition our university’s goal of creating impact for a sustainable society.

Our four overarching themes of Climate Science, Climate Change Mitigation, Climate Change Adaptation and Climate Change Governance are composed of Flagships. Researchers from different disciplines co-operate within the Flagships, and dedicated researchers have been appointed to each Flagship. We foster co-operation within Flagships, between the Flagships, with other climate related researchers and with external stakeholders and partners to secure societal impact.

We actively collaborate with other TU Delft initiatives including:

There is always a reason not to act. Let’s do something about this. Time is running out

― Prof Herman Russchenberg

Climate Action News

26 February 2020

TU Delft climate arboretum

TU Delft climate arboretum

Wednesday 18 March, National Tree Day (Nationale Boomfeestdag), will see the opening of the first climate arboretum at TU Delft.

25 February 2020

TU Delft Climate Institute offers travel support for negative emissions intern program

TU Delft Climate Institute offers travel support for negative emissions intern program

The climate institute at TU Delft would like to take up the challenge to develop scientific knowledge, scientific tools and technological solutions necessary for reversing the increase in atmospheric emissions.

20 February 2020

Taking a piss? Or turning it into energy

Taking a piss? Or turning it into energy

Pee not only generates uncontrollable laughter in five-year-olds but energy as well. Niels van Linden is currently working on a concept to produce electricity from urban and industrial residual waters, which in turn will power the energy-neutral water treatment system he is hoping to develop.

19 February 2020

From concrete waste to concrete buildings

From concrete waste to concrete buildings

Earth’s primary resources are finite. Human inventiveness, however, isn’t. At TU Delft’s laboratories, Francesco Di Maio is working on the recycling of concrete waste. Just like the Phoenix, the mythological bird that rises from its own ashes, Di Maio wants new concrete buildings to arise from their predecessors waste. He hopes his technologies will help to transform urban economies into self-sustaining loops.

18 February 2020

Can sandbanks save mangrove forests?

Can sandbanks save mangrove forests?

Waking up early and going into the field on a small fishermen's boat, while the sun is rising behind volcano tops. That's how days started for PhD student Silke Tas during her two month fieldwork in Indonesia. The rest of her days were less idyllic: they consisted mostly of treading through the mud to get the right measurements for her research. She studies the workings of coastal sandbanks that give a chance to mangrove forests to restore, so that the forests can, in turn, prevent coast erosion.


Climate Action News

03 November 2022

NPO Radio 1 broadcasts live from The Green Village during National Climate Week

NPO Radio 1 broadcasts live from The Green Village during National Climate Week

From October 31 until November 6 it is National Climate Week. As a climate university, TU Delft is committed to take part, because climate action is more urgent than ever. This week you will hear various NPO Radio 1 programmes live from the Climate Studio at The Green Village, the field lab for sustainable innovation on TU Delft Campus.

01 November 2022

Jonas Lechner is Best Graduate of TPM 2022

Jonas Lechner is Best Graduate of TPM 2022

Jonas Lechner is Best Graduate of TPM 2022! He now competes for the TU Delft Best Graduate award with his thesis 'Role of household climate change adaptation in reducing coastal flood risk: the case of Shanghai’. On 22 November the eight brand new engineers from the faculties presented their excellent graduation theses during the TU Delft Best Graduate Award Ceremony 2022.

23 September 2022

Developing a global standardization agenda against rising sea levels

Developing a global standardization agenda against rising sea levels

Filippo Grillo and Martijn Wiarda, both PhD candidates at TPM, have managed to secure a project from ISO, the International Organization for Standardization. They believe that standardization could help coastal communities and infrastructures adapt to sea-level rise and want to establish a global standardization agenda against rising sea levels.

22 August 2022

Measurement campaign maps GHG emissions and air pollution in Rotterdam

Measurement campaign maps GHG emissions and air pollution in Rotterdam

Scientists from TU Delft, together with scientist from other research institutions, will investigate how the reduction of urban greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution can best be monitored with atmospheric measurements. Monday, August 22, the measurement campaign will start in the Rotterdam region. TU Delft is using mobile rader equipment to measure urban emissions.

02 August 2022

How coastal seas help the ocean absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere

How coastal seas help the ocean absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere

The biologically productive North Sea impacts the global climate through exchange of carbon and nutrients with the Atlantic Ocean. A Dutch consortium of scientists will investigate how big this role of the North Sea really is. Under the leadership of the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ), conduct a combination of field studies and computer model simulations will be conducted over the next four years to address this question. Models will be used to determine future effects of environmental and climate change on the North Sea, Atlantic Ocean and ultimately Earth’s climate. TU Delft's Peter Herman and Bram van Prooijen (Civil Engineering & Geoscience) are involved in the research.