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...

A post by Diana Owuor, a student on our MSc. in Public Policy and Human Development (MPP). … In the ‘New Thinking for a New World’ podcast series by the Tällberg Foundation, Alan Stoga rightly states that one characteristic of the global response to COVID-19 is that it has not been global. A fairly state-centric and regional response has crowded a global approach in several areas. While this poses some challenges, it also offers opportunities- some of which have been unexpected. This artic...

This month I travelled from Maastricht to Bruges on the day that happened to be the hottest day ever recorded in both Dutch and Belgian meteorological history. As weather experts were explaining how a wave of hot air had moved north from the Sahara across continental Europe, it became clear to most European citizens that heat waves have no borders, with heat records also broken in neighbouring France and Germany. In Maastricht and Bruges, temperatures, as if they had harmonised, were ultimately ...

The UN wants to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. But, as many of us are acutely aware, the SDGs are not only ambitious but also complicated. A kaleidoscope of grand visions, the 2030 Agenda aims to rebuild our world from the ground up, in a work plan covering everything from the environment to education to peace and security. And linked to the 17 goals, there are 169 targets and 230 indicators. For The Economist magazine: “these are ambitions on a Biblical scale and not in a go...

‘Savages, monkeys … go back to the jungle!’ was the ghastly woven prose splashed across my door, the day after I arrived in Belgium. It was 23 August 2002. I was living with my cousin in the heart of the Molenbeek district, now sadly famous for other reasons. ...