Climate Action

There is no doubt that the anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases are changing our living environment. Climate change is in our hands. We need to both work on limiting it as much as we can (mitigation), but we will also have to learn to adapt to new circumstances. TU Delft will harness its innovative powers to support the world-wide transition to non-fossil resources, and adaptation of the living environment to the consequences of global warming.

The problem is complex and urgent – but we have no other choice than to be optimistic and use all of our capacity to face the challenge, through our education programs and our research.

For more information, see:

In the Climate Action research programme, we start from four themes we consider to be paramount for future Climate Action:

The TU Delft vision on Climate Action is deeply founded in preceding decades of university wide climate action research. The goal of the Climate action research programme is to build on current strengths and identify the areas where there is a need to strengthen our capacities to keep up our (inter)national reputation as climate action university.

Climate Action News

20 September 2023

Marina Tabassum started as Professor Architectural Design for Climate Adaptation

Marina Tabassum started as Professor Architectural Design for Climate Adaptation

Living and working in Bangladesh, “Architectural Design for Climate Adaptation” is almost more of a necessity than a choice for Marina Tabassum. She brings her personal style to it, combining knowledge of local climate, materials history, culture and community. Marina Tabassum has started as Professor at our faculty on 15 September 2023.

06 September 2023

Launch Climate Safety and Security Centre

Launch Climate Safety and Security Centre

Considering geopolitical tensions and power shifts, there is an increasing need for better understanding climate safety and security

05 September 2023

Clearing up the sky: reducing the uncertainty caused by clouds in the climate system

Clearing up the sky: reducing the uncertainty caused by clouds in the climate system

Wolken zijn verantwoordelijk voor een groot deel van de onzekerheid in klimaatprojecties. Met een Starting Grant van de European Research Council (ERC) wil Franziska Glassmeier de evolutie van wolken en hun invloed op het toekomstige klimaat beter begrijpen. Glassmeier is Assistant Professor atmosfeerwetenschappen aan de faculteit Civiele Techniek en Geowetenschappen van de TU Delft: "Als we de onzekerheid veroorzaakt door wolken kunnen verminderen, zouden we een veel beter idee hebben van hoeveel de planeet opwarmt door antropogene emissies."

01 August 2023

Premiere of “Dancing in the Desert”

Premiere of “Dancing in the Desert”

The premiere of Dancing in the Desert will take place on Wednesday, 23 August, at 2 pm on the Delft Markt town square. Admission is free. In this beautiful documentary, a team of filmmakers including Bram van Splunteren follow the student team working on the Nuna 11. It’s an exciting job, especially when you realise that the Nuna 10 caught fire during the previous Solar Challenge in Australia. Will these students succeed in designing and building an entirely new Nuna from scratch? Will it finish the race through the Moroccan desert and maybe even win it?

31 July 2023

Expedition to the Norwegian Trench to explore carbon burial

Expedition to the Norwegian Trench to explore carbon burial

To explore the role of the North Sea in the global climate system, the NIOZ research vessel Pelagia embarked on an expedition to the Norwegian Trench. On 15 June, the ship docked back at the NIOZ port on Texel, with on board Anna Enge, PhD student Hydraulic Engineering at TU Delft.


Climate Action News

01 May 2023

Delft Subsurface Urban Energy Lab strengthened with geothermal source on campus

Delft Subsurface Urban Energy Lab strengthened with geothermal source on campus

What was born almost 20 years ago as an enthusiastic plan by some Applied Earth Sciences students is now becoming reality: the construction of the wells will start this summer, and in a few years' time TU Delft's campus will be heated by a geothermal source. Earlier this week, the consortium behind Geothermie Delft decided to make the necessary follow-on investment to realise the planned geothermal wells and start the research programme.

01 May 2023

Royal Honours for Herman Russchenberg

Royal Honours for Herman Russchenberg

Herman Russchenberg, Professor of Geoscience and Remote Sensing at the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences (CEG) and TU Delft Pro Vice Rector for Climate Action, was made an Officer in the Order of Orange-Nassau in Leiden.

06 April 2023

Coastal changes not only caused by wind and waves, but also by people

Coastal changes not only caused by wind and waves, but also by people

Our coast protects us from the water; it is necessary understand its dynamic processes and to retain the sand at the coast. Natural influences such as wind and waves are constantly changing the coastline. Another important process affecting the coastline is often overlooked: human activity. To investigate this, Roderik Lindenbergh of TU Delft receives a grant from the NWO's Open Technology Programme for the AdaptCoast project.

27 March 2023

Making the energy transition happen for aviation

Making the energy transition happen for aviation

In his inaugural speech as a Full Professor of Sustainable Aircraft Propulsion Arvind Gangoli Rao will defend the right for people to move up the transportation ladder and explain how he intends to reduce the climate impact this causes: by making the energy transition happen in aviation. Gangoli Rao’s inaugural speech will take place in Delft at 15.00 on 31 March. It will also be available online live and on-demand.

21 March 2023

Climate-proof coastal protection with 'living dikes'

Climate-proof coastal protection with 'living dikes'

Dikes protect the Netherlands from flooding. To keep the Netherlands safe in the future, several dikes are being reinforced in the High Water Protection Programme. The traditional way of strengthening dikes involves 'hard' (asphalt) revetment, but this is at the expense of the natural environment. Therefore, the 'Living Dikes' project looks at dike reinforcement using 'building-with-nature' methodologies. Various parties, including TU Delft, are investigating how 'living dikes' can play an important role in climate-proof coastal protection while preserving nature and landscape.