August 2020 – The VU-IVM Summer Course ‘Global Energy Transition in a Fossil World’ was held from 6 to 17 July 2020. 25 students from all over the world discussed with a variety of speakers from Dutch government, NGOs, academia and business to learn about social, political, economic and technological aspects of the global energy transition. A new edition will follow in July 2021.
April 2020 – Are you interested in the social and political side of energy transition? Join the online Summer Course “Energy Transition in a Fossil World” at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam from 6 to 17 July 2020. With virtual excursions to Shell, Milieudefensie, the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate and the citizens’ energy cooperation “Zuiderlicht”. Read more >>
April 2020 – Long-term effects on global sustainability of the corona crisis have to be sought in a fundamental and lasting mentality shift in the minds of people because of the crisis. The main change is likely to be the increased perception of vulnerability and dependence on nature by people in industrialised countries. Read more >>
Stephan Slingerland Green versus Red: Is Biden’s victory really a green victory?, Clingendael Spectator, November 2020
Stephan Slingerland, Irati Artola et al. ClairCity CrossCity Policy Package Report, May 2020
Stephan Slingerland, Irati Artola et al. ClairCity City Policy Package Reports Amsterdam, Bristol, Aveiro/CIRA, Genoa/Liguria, Ljubljana, Sosnowiec, April 2020
Stephan Slingerland & Harro van Asselt Laten we stoppen met het subsidieren van kleine gasvelden (Stop subsidising the Dutch North Sea gasfields), Trouw, 21 February 2020
February 2020 – Dutch Government and some researchers think that subsidising new investments in Dutch gas fields in the North Sea is beneficial for the climate and for reducing dependency on Russian gas. Stephan Slingerland and Harro van Asselt argue in an opinion article published in the Dutch newspaper Trouw on 21 February 2020 that this is not a good idea for long-term international climate policy.
January 2020 – Shortly before the Christmas break the new European Commission published its long-awaited Green Deal. Once more the European Union showed its green ambitions and proclaimed environmental leadership by drafting a document full of strong environmental objectives. However, more will be needed than only big words. The Green Deal will need to make at least three fundamental connections in the coming year in order to be successful. Read more.
November 2019 – For the Open University in the Netherlands, SPA Sustainability supervised the courses ‘Principles of Environmental Science’ and ‘Earth, Humans, Environment 2’. In these courses, students learn the basics of sustainability science. Part of the assignment was also an update of one of these courses in order to fit with most recent insights in sustainability and environmental sciences.
January 2020 – As of 1 January 2020, the name of the company Slingerland Policy Advice has changed into SPA Sustainability. In this way, it is clear even from the title what services the company wants to provide: New Solutions for Sustainability. The company aims to provide three main categories of products: research and sustainability actions, education and training
December 2019 – The recently published ClairCity final policy report Bristol shows that policy making with citizens leads to new insights: 1) not commuting, but shopping and leisure behaviour contributes most to air pollution in Bristol, 2) citizens generally support more ambitious air pollution and climate change policies in Bristol and are ready to change their own behaviours accordingly, 3) policy makers confirm that the citizen plans overall can be implemented, 4) the citizen plans lead to less air pollution and carbon emissions in the city and do not have to imply excessive additional costs to the city. Read more >>
December 2019 – Rather than closing the often cited ‘emission gaps’ between nationally decided climate policies and international climate goals, decisive steps on international sustainability in 2020 are likely to depend on closing three far more fundamental international sustainability policy gaps. This Clingendael ‘Geopolitics of Sustainability’ column discusses which ones. Read more >>