A Q&A with IPCC coordinating lead author Maarten van Aalst   About one month ago, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a 37-page summary of its starkest findings on the state of our planet: the IPCC AR6 Synthesis Report. In short, it states that we are not only off-track from limiting global warming to a degree that will keep the world inhabitable as we know it, but we are also set to exceed this limit much sooner than expected. Given the complexity of how ...

Researchers of UNU-MERIT, the Maastricht Sustainability Institute and the Department of Chemical Engineering of Maastricht University have obtained a 1.5 million euro grant to contribute to an EU-funded project on plastic packaging recycling.  The EU is allocating a total budget of 9.6 million euros for the SYSCHEMIQ project as part of the Horizon Green Deal programme. The project is intended to facilitate the systemic transition to a circular economy in the region. The project fits with the str...

A new paper co-authored by Prof. Luc Soete brings business and science perspectives to the most pressing global issues of our time. Set against the macro backdrops of climate change and the coronavirus pandemic, the authors investigate ‘technological sovereignty’ and ‘knowledge safety’ in Africa and Europe — particularly vis-à-vis China, the USA and the World Health Organization. They also analyse the sanctity of intellectual property rights, amid the ongoing tensio...

Two new flagship programmes from UNU-MERIT, coming under the banner of ‘Comprehensive Innovation for Sustainable Development‘ (CI4SD), feature in the first ever UN Climate Change Innovation Compendium, in chapters focusing on the Green Economy and on Capacity Strengthening. … We live in times of unprecedented global challenges – climate change is one of the greatest threats we face. Catastrophic heat waves, wildfires, floods, drought, storms and other natural disasters linked t...

In July 2021, several European countries including Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands were affected by catastrophic floods, causing deaths and widespread damage. Such extreme weather events are expected to increase in both frequency and severity in the coming decades, according to the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). To understand the risks of climate change and examine how vulnerabilities can be reduced, United Nations University (UNU) institutes in Ger...

The lives of billions of people are at stake at this month’s COP26 Summit, as regional and national leaders meet to mitigate the worst case scenarios of climate change. Against this backdrop, we know that thousands of lives are already being lost every year – but what about the climate survivors? What are the long-term psychological effects at play? ...

Whether we are consciously aware of it or not, we negotiate in every aspect of our daily lives - whether it be persuading a child to eat its vegetables, haggling over a property price, or discussing the terms of a job offer. Negotiation can be viewed as “back-and-forth communication designed to reach an agreement when you and the other side have some interests that are shared and others that are opposed”....

Master’s alumnus Manuj Bhardwaj, a lawyer from India, has been awarded a United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) programme scholarship, 2021-23, from the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation. IPCC Secretary Abdallah Mokssit called the programme “an important step in the fight against climate change enabling the implementation of innovative and efficient solutions”. Manuj is currently pursuing a Doctorate in Law from American University, Washington DC, w...

PhD candidate Mariajose Silva Vargas has been named a Robert S. McNamara Fellow at the World Bank, where she will be hosted for 2021-22 in the Infrastructure and Climate Change unit, part of the Development Impact Evaluation department, in Washington DC, USA. As a large part of her work, Mariajose uses field experiments to address socio-economic questions in countries of the Global South. For example, she is currently running projects in Uganda to study land markets and the socio-economic integr...

Walking 4 SDGs UNU-MERIT staff and students travel virtually to Instituto Terra, Brazil, in support of SDG13 Enter keywords...