On 29 May 2026, the KIN organised a second expert consultation at the KNMI in De Bilt for the IPCC Special Report on Climate Change and Cities, which is due to be published in March 2027. The participants from the fields of policy, research and practice were in complete agreement on one thing: this is a relevant report containing a wealth of relevant knowledge and insights, but please produce a more readable and practical version of it for the Netherlands!
Photo: Bart van den Hurk, Co-Chair of the IPCC Cities Report, gives an introduction to the report (photo: KIN)
This meeting follows on from the expert consultation held in 2024, which contributed to the drafting of the table of contents for the Special Report. The aim of this second expert consultation is to offer (urban) policymakers, civil society organisations, researchers and other stakeholders the opportunity to share their societal perspectives and practical knowledge with the report’s authors. Prof. Dr Bart van den Hurk, co-chair of this report, opened the meeting with an introduction to the report’s structure and purpose. The five Dutch authors of the report were then given the opportunity to explain which chapter they were working on and what questions they had for the practitioners in the room. The entire session took the form of a dialogue with these experts, enabling the authors to fully incorporate that practical perspective into the finalisation of the report.
The common thread running through the experts’ feedback was that the findings in this IPCC Cities Report could be very useful for (municipal) sustainability policy in the Netherlands, but that this would require a more accessible and action-oriented ‘adaptation’ to the Dutch context. With precisely this aim in mind, KIN is now exploring, together with the Scientific Climate Council (WKR), whether a follow-up meeting could be organised following the publication of the report to discuss how to achieve such a ‘translation’ in collaboration with Dutch local authorities.