Amsterdam Complexity School on Climate Change

Want in on next year's edition? Stay tuned here for updates on applications for #ACSCC2026! 🌍✨

Incredible how much creativity and rigor emerged in just five days!

A heartfelt thank-you to every participant for your passion and ingenuity, and to the wonderful team at the @iasamsterdam.bsky.social hosting us so warmly.

Then: examining how misinformation is challenging 15-minute-city implementations, followed by a beautiful performance of multi-level governance empowering and impeding ecological restoration. 🎭

Twin spotlights on the ultra-rich: 1️⃣ dissected their climate attitudes & behaviors; 2️⃣ mapped the spectrum of interventions to target the elite 💸💸

Morning sprint: unraveling causal chains that link climate stressors to conflict, decoding the regulatory maze derailing green investments, and accelerating heat-pump adoption 🌍

What a show on the last day of ACSCC 2025 where our brilliant participants presented the culmination of their week-long collaborations. Buckle up for today’s highlights👇

It’s hard to believe: tomorrow is already the LAST DAY of ACSCC, where all our learnings and projects culminate in final presentations. Excited for it! 🚀🎉👩‍🔬

Our panel with Pippi van Ommen and Erika van der Linden adressed levers of change! Pippi shared about XR’s disruptive tactics and building support through deep canvassing. Erika unpacked policymaking and how structures outlast shifting politics 🔧🌱

In today’s opening talk, @heleenekker.bsky.social took us on a 20-year journey through climate journalism — from Arctic ice floes to UN summits. She argued that improved linking of extreme weather events to climate change is helping to keep climate coverage high. 🗞️❄️🌍

What a night! After a gorgeous sunny dinner yesterday, we came back energized for Day 4 of ACSCC! 🌞🍽️✨

After another sunny lunch followed by intense project work, we are now getting ready for our social dinner — a three course vegan menu at Café de Ceuvel next to the canals in the evening sun!

Our third speaker was Ben Franta, who gave us an overview of the encouraging growth and diversity of climate cases being filed around the world. Climate litigation is critical to bringing down the fossil fuel industry, and it is heartening to see people like Ben devoting their careers to this fight.

We then heard from Liesbeth van Tongeren, who — as a former member of Dutch parliament & former director of Greenpeace — shared her rich experience of bringing about change, drawing practical lessons from the year-long, successful fight against shale gas in the Netherlands.

Time flies and we are already halfway through ACSCC!

Today was kicked-off by @doynefarmer.bsky.social, who gave us a deep dive into forecasting technological progress. Doyne also shared his vision of complexity economics for a better world, and showcased his impressive modelling work at Macrocosm.

We are already looking forward to tomorrow’s keynote by Doyne Farmer and the talks by Liesbeth van Tongeren and Ben Franta!

For the rest of the afternoon, participants joined their groups to continue working on their projects.

After yet another sunny lunch outside of UvA Institute for Advanced Study, Laura Cull Ó Maoilearca and Agat Sharma created a participatory performance in which they casted all ACSCC participants into a theater play written for the occasion.

In the second keynote of the day, Joyeeta Gupta discussed climate change from a justice perspective, providing an inspiring call to action and presenting several of her initiatives, including her Spinoza Prize funded project Global Constitution.

The second day of ACSCC was again full of inspiring lectures and discussions!

Day two was kicked-off by the keynote of Tim Lenton, who gave an introduction to tipping points and an update on the latest research, followed by a discussion about effective leverage points using positive tipping points.

After a sunny lunch break outside the UvA Institute for Advanced Study, participants exchanged ideas, discussed their projects, and began forming groups for collaborative work. We’ve already seen some excellent and diverse project ideas emerge. We’re looking forward to an amazing week ahead!

Following opening remarks by the organizers — @fdabl.bsky.social, @adamfinnemann.bsky.social, @jmbh.bsky.social, and @karolinehuth.bsky.social — we kicked off with a keynote by @vvvasconcelos.bsky.social. He took us on a deep dive into computational modeling, networks, and agent-based simulations.

The second edition of ACSCC is officially underway!
We had a fantastic first day, welcoming over 40 participants from a wide range of disciplines — including economists, lawyers, social scientists, metallurgists, and more. Once again, we are blessed with wonderful sunny weather here in Amsterdam! ☀️

Line-up of our speakers: Tim Lenton, Doyne Farmer, Joyeeta Gupta, Liesbeth van Tongeren, Vitor Vasconcelos, Ben Franta, Heleen Ekker, Lydia Baan Hofman, Erika van der Linden, Pippi van Ommen, Agat Sharma, Laura Cull O Maoilearca

We are very excited about the line-up of speakers for ACSCC, which kicks off next week!

The following talks can also be followed online:

Tim Lenton: tinyurl.com/5d9ubts9
Joyeeta Gupta: tinyurl.com/kbk92rap
Doyne Farmer: tinyurl.com/vdrhjvwe
Vítor Vasconcelos: uva-live.zoom.us/j/89976716302

We are proud to announce Doyne Famer (@doynefarmer.bsky.social) whose pioneering work in complexity economics, financial stability, and technological progress helps us reimagine a resilient, low-carbon future. 🌍 Don’t miss your last chance to apply—deadline Friday— at acscc.nl! 🚀

🔍 Speaker: Joyeeta Gupta

We are honored to have Spinoza Prize winner Joyeeta Gupta, whose work fights for climate justice, equity, fairer governance, and sustainable policies. 🌍

Final chances to apply at acscc.nl 🚀

🔍 Speaker Spotlight: Tim Lenton

We are honored to have leading Earth system scientist Tim Lenton, who introduced 'climate tipping points' to the literature. Recently, his focus expanded to social tipping points as means to a sustainable future.

⏳ Last chance to apply at acscc.nl

Speaker Spotlight: Vítor V. Vasconcelos

What is complexity? Vítor will kick off ACSCC with a primer on complex systems. He’s an Assistant Professor at UvA, co-leads POLDER, and works on collective behavior and unintended consequences in social systems.

⏳ Final days to apply at acscc.nl

Information on the Amsterdam Complexity School on Climate Change, including dates (April 28 - May 2) and confirmed speakers so far (Tim Lenton, Joyeeta Gupta, Doyne Farmer, Liesbeth van Tongeren, Vitor Vasconcelos, Pippi van Ommen)

⏳ 10 days left to apply! ⏳

There are only 10 days left to apply for @acscc.bsky.social hosted at @iasamsterdam.bsky.social!

Come visit a beautiful city, hear from world-renowned experts, and work with passionate people on challenges related to climate change: acscc.nl

In case you missed it, the applications are now open for the second Amsterdam Complexity School on Climate Change!

Come visit a beautiful city, hear from world-renowned experts, and work with passionate individuals on challenges related to climate change.

More info: acscc.nl