From a legal perspective, one would aim to seek for objective and transparent criteria that could guide the international and national decision-making process for developing climate laws.

The PhD thesis delivered in the research school Ius Commune by Javier de Cendra de Larragan regarding Distributional choices in EU climate law and policy aims to enhance the debate on such criteria, not only for internal EU climate policy choices but also for the EU climate policy positions that affect the rest of the world.

On Friday 5 March, Javier de Cendra will present main challenges for EU climate policy as concluded in his thesis, after which three presentations will follow.

The full workshop programme is available for download HERE .

Registration (no fee required) can be done by email to: marjan.peeters@maastrichtuniversity.nl

Venue: Statenzaal,
Law Faculty,
Bouillonstraat 1-3 Maastricht
Maastricht University

Een groep van 55 vooraanstaande Nederlandse onderzoekers, werkzaam op het gebied van klimaatverandering, milieu en energie, heeft in een open brief gereageerd op de discussie die is ontstaan over de betrouwbaarheid van het IPCC en het klimaatrapport 2007. De brief is op 10 februari openbaar gemaakt in diverse media. De volledige tekst van deze brief is hieronder beschikbaar als pdf download.

Download HIER de pdf-versie van de open brief.

In response to the ongoing discussion about the reliability of the IPCC and the climate reports, a group of 55 leading Dutch scientists working in the field of climate change, energy and the environment has written an open letter. The letter was published in several Dutch media on February 10. You can download the full letter below.

Click HERE to download the pdf version of the open letter in English.

In the past weeks, some errors in the reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have found wide attention in the media. These errors are unfortunate and require correction, as is common in the scientific process.

However, in view of the management of the SENSE research school and its many affiliated researchers, these errors do not affect the scientific content and overall message of the reports of the IPCC. Climate change requires urgent political action.

We regret that some media outlets have published articles on this matter that contain misleading, incorrect and incomplete information. Moreover, we regret that some articles have questioned the personal integrity of members of our research school who participate - unpaid and on their own time - in the international IPCC network.

The SENSE A1 course "Environmental Research in Context" is compulsory for SENSE PhD students and is led by Dr. Ad van Dommelen, who is the Director of Education of SENSE.

During this week (19-22 January 2010) 39 SENSE PhD students have been exchanging experiences and ideas about their work, as well as on their project planning. They get to know each other and the people within the SENSE network. On the first evening they had an inspiring meeting with NRC journalist Joris Luyendijk.

A Picasa web album with photo impressions (and download options) of the SENSE A1 course "Class of January 2010" may be found HERE.

On the occasion of the opening of the Kraijenhoff van de Leur Laboratory for Water and Sediment Dynamics, a symposium is organized on the role of laboratory experiment in water and sediment dynamics research.

You are invited to consider, share and discuss different views on the topic with scientific experts in experimental research. Additionally, you are welcome to visit our campus and the new laboratory in a guided tour. This day includes lunch and drinks after the symposium and is free of charge.

In this symposium, we would like to explore the role of social science methods in designing, facilitating and evaluating participatory processes. Questions that will be covered are: Why are social science methods important for participatory processes? What kind of social science methods are relevant in this regard? What does this mean for the role of the social scientist? What kind of empirical applications are there, and what can we learn from them?

This symposium will precede the PhD graduation of Eefje Cuppen.

To register, please send an email with subject "symposium participation" to: e.h.w.j.cuppen@tudelft.nl

The full programme is available for download HERE.

On December 14th Prof. William Rees (University of British Columbia) will give a lecture about the (un)sustainability of modern society. The lecture will be followed by an open debate. Prof. Rees is, among other things, the originator of the "ecological footprint" concept.

Participation in the event is free of charge. Registration is highly advisable.

A new monthly seminar series called Wageningen Evolution and Ecology Seminars (WEES) will start on Thursday 22 October 2009. The first seminar will be by Tal Dagan titled 'Modular networks and cumulative impact of lateral gene transfer in prokaryote genome evolution'. The seminar will start at 16:00, Lecture room C7, Chemistry building, Dreijenplein 4 in Wageningen and will be followed by drinks. For more information go to http://www.gen.wur.nl/UK/WEES/

Een PhD afronden in vier jaar, het is echt mogelijk. Voor degenen die niet weten hoe ze dit moeten bewerkstelligen, is er nu het boek 'Klaar in vier jaar'. Dit boek laat zien dat je een promotietraject, hoe complex en uniek ook, kunt plannen als een project. Hiervoor wordt een praktisch stappenplan aangereikt.