The world abounds with different footprints that calculate human impact on the environment. Environmental specialist Kai Fang is the first person to have developed a family of footprints that allow better measurement of environmental damage and the depletion of natural sources. PhD defence on 24 Nov…

Lecture, Q&A

How can we best deal with the current problems caused by the human impact on the nitrogen cycle? How do we make the transition to a sustainable society? As of 1 September, nitrogen expert Jan Willem Erisman will be working on these questions at Leiden University: he will exchange the Louis Bolk Institute…

Teresa is currently a student of Public International Law LLM at Leiden University.

What is the effect of light at night on plant phenology and physiology, and how does this affect plant interactions with other species?

The coming two years the Van Vollenhoven Institute (VVI, Leiden University) and ICEL (the Indonesian Center for Environmental Law) will collaborate to improve environmental regulation in Indonesia.

What is the influence of the 2016 ban on free plastic bags on the environment? Industrial ecologist Stefano Cucurachi received a LUF grant of €75.000 to answer this question.

Anthropogenic noise has been shown to affect marine animals in various ways, this may have fitness consequences at individual and population level. This thesis aims to increase insight into the quantification of sound-induced behavioural responses that are relevant to fitness, and into factors that…

On 26 and 27 May 2017, Richard Jiang, PhD candidate at the Europa Institute, participated as a speaker in the ninth annual meeting of the Society for Environmental Law and Economics at Worcester College, University of Oxford.

Fishes rely heavily on sound to find their way during migration or dispersal. Many species are affected by noise pollution. Hans Slabbekoorn from the Institute of Biology Leiden received a HORIZON2020 grant of 500,000 euros to study the impact of sound conditions on movement decisions of fishes.

Leiden astronomers and ecologists are developing an instrument that lets people measure the quality of surface water with a smartphone.This international citizen science project, MONOCLE, is a collaboration between scientists and local people in Tanzania, Brazil and four European countries.

While offshore wind farms generate clean and green energy, scientists are becoming increasingly aware of the harmful impact they may have on marine life. To get a better overview of these impacts and to find the best locations for future wind farms, environmental scientist Yali Si and her colleagues…

Recent publications

Do sustainability values play a role in motivating people to act for biodiversity in successful projects and in successful leadership action? And how could these values be incorporated in current economic valuation methods?

UNPLASTIC, a research project by Leiden University College The Hague (LUC) won the Dopper Changemaker Challenge 2019. LUC student Roos Kolkman represented UNPLASTIC during the semi-finals on Saturday.

Eco-innovations like more economical cars do not generate the environmental benefits predicted by the manufacturers. This is the result of the so-called rebound effect, concludes Leiden industrial ecologist David Font Vivanco on the basis of new algorithms. PhD defence 3 March.

This thesis describes the role of pollution, specifically neonicotinoid insecticides, as an actor of the ongoing biodiversity decline.

On Sustainable Tuesday, two weeks before Dutch Budget Day, the Dutch cabinet receives a suitcase full of sustainable ideas and initiatives. The initiators' aim: to make the government plans for the upcoming year a little more sustainable. At the Leiden Institute of Environmental Sciences (CML), assistant…

The Leiden University Green Office is pleased to announce its Spring Poetry competition, on the theme: (Environmental) Guilt!

Materials balances have been used in the recent past for the analysis of substance oriented environmental problems and the formulation of measures for environmental policy. In this study an integrated tool, based on the materials balance principle, has been developed for the analysis of both environmental…

Mapping out the problem of plastic pollution requires a lot of data over a large area. That's why scientists are increasingly turning to volunteers for help, also known as citizen science. But what are the challenges for a researcher when he or she involves the public in research in this way? Four Leiden…

Promotor: Carel J. ten Cate, Co-Promotor: Hans W. Slabbekoorn

Following the Beirut explosion, BBC's podcast series The Foodchain explores the chemical that caused the blast: ammonium nitrate. A compound that is widely used to produce fertilizer. Professor of Environmental sustaibability Jan Willem Erisman tells about the effects of nitrogen on the environment.

The relationship between States and foreign corporations are regulated by international economic law and international investment law in particular. Any disputes between States and foreign corporations must therefore also be solved by reference to this body of public international law, for example when…

We use zebrafish as a model organism to study human development and disease as well as animal welfare and environmental impact.

Below you will find an overview of the publications of The Leiden Advocacy Project on Plastic.

This study seeks to identify suitable local environments conditions for the objects displayed at the Jordanian museums using the proper methods in order to contribute to the stabilization of these objects.

Improving environmental risk assessment of pesticides in surface waters

On Tuesday 26 June Linlin Sun will defend her dissertation entitled ‘International Environmental Obligations and Liabilities in Deep Seabed Mining’. The dissertation has been written under the supervision of prof. dr. N.J. Schrijver and prof. dr. E.C.P.D.C. De Brabandere.

Capture the emissions of ships and use it to cultivate algae, which you can then use to make biofuels. This was the idea that won the team from Leiden, led by Public Administration student Hein Laterveer, the Rotterdam100 competition.

Examining the sustainability aspects of biotechnology, especially those related to the production of ethanol from biomass.

A more efficient solar panel sounds great. But what if these new panels consume more toxic materials, or their production consumes a lot of energy? Leiden environmental scientists, together with colleagues from the Fraunhofer ISE, address this multifaceted question in a new publication in the prestigious…

This study focuses on the local level impacts of a highly globalised industry: the international trade in tropical timber.

The Environmental Sciences Research Prize 2012 has been awarded to CML researcher David Font Vivanco by the Environmental Scientists Association of Catalonia.

On Thursday 7 May, Jolanda van der Vliet obtained her PhD based on her dissertation 'The International Protection of Environmental Refugees. A human rights-based, security and State responsibility approach.' The defence was held online. Jolanda worked on her dissertation under the supervision of the…