Speakers

Pier Vellinga is an environmental scientist and an expert on climate change. He is chairman of the Netherlands Society for Nature and Environment and serves as professor of environmental science and dean of the faculty of earth and life sciences at Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam. Previously, he directed its Institute for Environmental Studies. As one of the first Dutch scientists to focus on the social implications of climate change, he conducted research on the transition of energy supply and adaptation to climate change in the Netherlands Delta areas. He also chaired the science and technical advisory panel of the Global Environment Facility of the UN Environment Program, the UN Development Program, and the World Bank, and he was a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.