Debate on energy transition

Debate on energy transition 

 

 

Following earlier deliberations on cooperation with the fossil industry, four student associations of the Faculty of Applied Sciences (AS) in cooperation with student party ORAS are organising a debate on the energy transition on 25 April. 

 

Four debate members, led by optoelectronic materials professor Ferdinand Grozema, will discuss six propositions in the field of energy transition. Those propositions range from the much-discussed ‘universities should stop collaborating with fossil industries’ to ‘the government puts too much emphasis on consumers and should focus on regulating large companies and industries’. 

 

The reason for the debate is the division over how to approach the energy transition within technical courses, says co-organiser and secretary at the Technological Society Yordi Beelen. “One of my professors, Monique van der Veen, wondered whether you can study chemistry to bring about change. She came up with the idea for this debate.”

 

 

^{The Sustainability Debate takes place on the 25th of April in ECHO. (Photo: Instagram Sustainability Debate)}

The debate members come from politics as well as business, activism and journalism. Present on behalf of industry is Manon Bloemer, director of the Royal Association for the Dutch Chemical Industry. D66 MP Raoul Boucke, previously climate rapporteur for Europe’s energy transition plans, joins on behalf of politics. Activist and TU Delft researcher Charlotte Braat and NRC journalist Rozanne Hertzberger complete the foursome. 

 

A panel of TU Delft experts including Andy van den Dobbelsteen, Bernard Dam and Peter Palensky will also be present. They have been asked to put the debate members’ arguments into perspective.

 

The debate will take place on 25 April from 07:00 to 09:00 PM in ECHO. Registration can be done here. A total of three hundred seats are available. (RvdW)

 

Also read:

• [Column] Why study chemistry?
• Deliberation on the links between TU Delft and fossil fuel industry: ‘I have adjusted my thinking’