The climate is changing, the atmosphere is warming. The causes are broadly known, but there is great uncertainty about how much warming we can expect in the future. This not only complicates climate adaptation efforts such as estimating the required height of dykes, but also affects mitigation policies. How much CO2 can we emit to control change? We do not fully know and understand the relationship between warming and increases in greenhouse gas emissions, do not know what tipping points are in the climate system and when they will occur. In addition, current projections for regional climate change are inaccurate. Increasingly, extreme precipitation, storms or droughts are linked to global climate change, which thus manifests itself as a very concrete but usually poorly predictable security risk. Extreme weather events often have a major impact on everyday reality, underlining the need for a societal approach to this issue. There are major challenges in identifying, predicting and, if possible, mitigating risks from the impact of climate change and extreme weather on people and nature and the impact of migration due to climate change.
Connecting character
Climate change is a complex, global phenomenon with widely varying regional impacts. This calls for an integrated, partly international approach across scales and disciplines and requires active collaboration between fundamental scientific research in the fields of climate physics, hydrology and mathematics, application-oriented studies focused on safety and disaster management and practice-oriented work. A better understanding of the causes and processes behind climate change can greatly benefit our efforts in climate adaptation, climate mitigation and the predictability of extreme weather events. At the same time, applied research and living labs can be breeding grounds for innovative solutions, which can also be exported as high-quality, integrated solutions. Topics where the Netherlands has built a good international reputation include water safety, coastal defence, building with nature, reliable drinking water supply and agricultural optimisation. Climate change expressly calls for further research and adequate monitoring of changes in natural processes and in the living environment. Climate change and extreme weather events are phenomena with a very broad social impact. Besides protecting vital infrastructure and heritage, safeguarding the liveability of (delta) cities and necessary adjustments in agriculture, attention is also needed for political and administrative aspects of climate adaptation and mitigation and for enhanced citizen participation in implementing this policy.
