Detlef van Vuuren receives 2024 Spinoza Prize at NWO ceremony
On 2 October Prof. Detlef van Vuuren was awarded the 2024 Spinoza Prize at a ceremony in The Hague hosted by the Dutch Research Council NWO. The prize is accompanied by a monetary award of 1.5 million euros, which Van Vuuren intends to use to develop scenarios that will help us reach a future that is both environmentally sustainable and ensures a dignified life for everyone on Earth.
Detlef van Vuuren (1970) is a Professor of Integrated Assessment of Global Environmental Change at Utrecht University’s Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development and a climate researcher at PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency. His research focuses on the IMAGE framework—an integrated ecological-environmental model that simulates the global environmental impacts of human activities. This model provides policymakers with crucial scenarios and tools to support decision-making. Through his work with the IMAGE model, Van Vuuren’s research has contributed to, among other things, the Paris Climate Agreement and played a key role in multiple IPCC reports.
Looking forward: a dignified life for everyone on Earth
The work of Detlef and his team has successfully used scenario analyses for many global sustainability issues. “However, global sustainability challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss, pollution, as well as poverty and hunger, are deeply interconnected,” he says. The Planetary Boundaries framework highlights these linkages – emphasizing that we need to stay within "safe" levels for Earth System processes. “However, we have agreed internationally to make a dignified life possible for everyone on Earth. This requires a certain minimum use of environmental resources”.
Together, he explains, this translates into a kind of corridor with both upper and lower boundaries for the collective environmental pressure. “I would like to use the Spinoza Prize to develop scenarios that aim to stay within that corridor, taking into account the relationships between the various environmental and development issues”.
Interviews
To celebrate the awarding of the Spinoza Prize - also referred to as the ‘Dutch Nobel Prize’ - Utrecht University organised UU Talks on Thursday 10 October: an interview, moderated by journalist and television presenter Twan Huys, with the Stevin and Spinoza Prize laureates, professors Paul ‘t Hart and Detlef van Vuuren. The evening was filled with thought-provoking discussions about their groundbreaking research, personal journeys and the challenges of conducting science in an era of global change. A central theme? How universities can make a real difference, both in tackling the problems we face and in creating positive visions for the future.
Following UU Talks, Huys interviewed Van Vuuren and ‘t Hart on Sunday 13 October for the Dutch political tv programme Buitenhof, about how scientific knowledge translates to everyday solutions and the importance of long-term political thinking for addressing climate change. Catch the interview here.