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

01 November 2021

Meltwater from the Austrian Alps

Meltwater from the Austrian Alps

An imposing, compelling and urgent social problem, that is what Master student Sarah Hanus wanted for her final project. She found it high up in the Austrian Alps where climate change is altering river runoff patterns. Using a model she developed herself, Hanus is able to come up with long-term projections of what these patterns will look like in future. Her work earned her the title of Best Graduate of the Faculty of Civil Engineering & Sciences.

28 October 2021

TU Delft participates in National Climate Week

TU Delft participates in National Climate Week

From 28 October to 5 November, it is National Climate Week with the slogan 'everyone does something'. TU Delft, as a climate university, is fully participating, because attention to the climate is more urgent than ever.

21 September 2021

TU Delft opens Climate Action Hub on Campus The Hague

TU Delft opens Climate Action Hub on Campus The Hague

20 September 2021

Climate technology you hope you’ll never need

Climate technology you hope you’ll never need

Could clouds be modified to slow global warming? Cloud expert Herman Russchenberg is investigating climate intervention but hopes his theories will never be put to the test.

09 September 2021

High water Limburg summer 2021 more drastic than river floods in 1993 and 1995

High water Limburg summer 2021 more drastic than river floods in 1993 and 1995

The heavy precipitation along with the high water of July 2021 in the Netherlands and surrounding countries was an extreme and exceptional event with major social consequences in Limburg. Commissioned by the Expertise Network for Water Safety (ENW), a broad consortium of knowledge institutions, led by Delft University of Technology and Deltares, has now made an initial analysis of the available information on a range of topics.


Climate Action News

24 February 2023

16 million to keep the Dutch delta livable - even as it changes

16 million to keep the Dutch delta livable - even as it changes

Deltas and coastal plains are attractive places to live: fertile, flat, and open to the sea. These lowlands are, however, also vulnerable to climate change and sea-level rise. To better predict how deltas develop in the future, a thorough understanding is needed of biogeomorphology- how organisms, currents, waves, water, and sand discharge shape the delta-landscape. It was announced today that Δ-ENIGMA, a project focusing on this formation of the delta landscape, is one of the projects that will be funded from the National Roadmap for Large-Scale Research Infrastructure (LSRI) call of the Dutch Research Counsil (NWO).

20 February 2023

16 million to keep the Dutch delta livable - even as it changes

16 million to keep the Dutch delta livable - even as it changes

Deltas and coastal plains are attractive places to live: fertile, flat, and open to the sea. These lowlands are, however, also vulnerable to climate change and sea-level rise. It was announced today that Δ-ENIGMA, a project focusing on this formation of the delta landscape, is one of the projects that will be funded from the National Roadmap for Large-Scale Research Infrastructure (LSRI) call of the Dutch Research Counsil (NWO)

20 February 2023

€18 million for research on the sustainable use of our subsurface

€18 million for research on the sustainable use of our subsurface

Increased use of the subsurface, for example for geothermal energy production or subsurface storage, is crucial for achieving the (inter)national goals for greenhouse gas emissions. Today it was announced that EPOS-eNLarge, a research project that focuses on efficient and safe use of the Dutch subsurface, is one of the projects to be awarded through the Dutch Research Council (NWO) Large-scale Research Infrastructure call. The 10-year project will receive 17.9 million euros from NWO.

09 February 2023

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.

06 February 2023

'Safe-by-design' chemical recycling of plastic waste

'Safe-by-design' chemical recycling of plastic waste

Ana Somoza-Tornos, Assistant Professor at the Department of Chemical Engineering, has received Seed Funding from the TU Delft Safety & Security Institute for the safe-by-design chemical recycling of plastic waste