We, the initiators of SEVEN, are truly worried about climate change. Heat stress, floods, drought, heavy precipitation, hurricanes, and other extreme weather events impact people's well-being, food supply, safety and health and cause serious harm to the environment. Climate change hits underprivileged and vulnerable people and regions hardest. Proposed solutions often do not distribute benefits and burdens fairly. 

It is urgent to act faster. We must make societies around the globe more resilient to the effects we are already witnessing and limit further climate change by drastic cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. That is a major challenge – especially if we aim to meet the needs of people while fairly distributing benefits and burdens. We must better appreciate the connections between problems and solutions in their full scope – considering technology, history, culture, regulation, policies, business models, behaviour and much more. 

Solutions require bringing together expertise from many scientific disciplines as well knowledge from practitioners, imagination, practicality and creativity. Also necessary is cooperation between everyone, inside and outside the university, who aspires to do something about the challenge ahead in the interest of people, society, and nature. 

As a broad university with expertise in many disciplines, the UvA can make a significant contribution. We will do our utmost to optimally connect this knowledge and contribute to solutions that are truly fair and effective. Working closely together, we will do research for and with societal groups, policy-makers and companies. 

We seek to establish collaborations to answer fundamental societal questions, such as:  

• How can we produce and store renewable energy while allowing enough space for housing, business activities, leisure and nature? 
• How can the energy transition bring more quality of life rather than higher costs for people with tight budgets? 
• How can we change our diets to promote human and environmental health?  
• How can agriculture be made more resilient to climate change while simultaneously being brought more into harmony with the surrounding nature? 
• How can we adapt cities to reduce heat stress and create healthy and livable living environments? 
• How can we make public services such as healthcare climate-neutral? 
• How can we fulfil our historical responsibility for climate change by supporting countries that still need to catch up in terms of their level of prosperity? 

We, the SEVEN Team, are convinced that synthesizing the knowledge and research of our seven faculties and all the disciplines they encompass will contribute to the necessary changes. We will work on solutions that are impactful and fair. 

Joining forces for fair climate solutions 

Peter van Dam, John Grin, Frenk van Harreveld, Ans Kolk, André Nollkaemper, Niek Sperna Weiland, Catherine Volgenant, Margaretha Wewerinke-Singh, Bob van der Zwaan

4 November 2024