An example of climate obstruction: dismissing acid rain as a hoax. Photo Shutterstock Of the ten initiatives that were included in the science and education category of the 2025 edition of the Trouw Sustainability 100, two have a WUR connection. These are Climate Obstruction NL (3rd place) and NatuurCollege (10th place). Scientist Rebellion NL also earned a place in this top 10.
Climate Obstruction NL is a knowledge centre and research network that provides insight into how climate obstruction works: the deliberate opposition to changes that are necessary to combat climate change. It analyses which parties are behind it and what tactics they use to influence political decision-making and public opinion. Martijn Duineveld, associate professor at the Cultural Geography chair group, was one of its founders. He previously told Resource about it.
The listing in the sustainability 100 was announced late on Tuesday evening. Duineveld did not initially realise exactly what this meant. ‘On Wednesday morning, I was concentrating on writing about climate obstruction. It was only after lunch that I checked my LinkedIn and other social media accounts: it was raining thumbs up and hearts.’
Duineveld, who is now involved in the initiative as a member of the supervisory board, is delighted with this place in the Sustainability 100. ‘As an organisation, we have only been in existence for just over a year. I assumed that we would need a longer run-up period to make a name for ourselves. I hadn’t dared to hope that Climate Obstruction NL would already receive this recognition.’
NatuurCollege
Another initiative with such an honourable sustainability 100 listing that has a WUR connection is NatuurCollege. Trouw describes it as ‘the network at Wageningen University that wants to bring nature education outside the university’. NatuurCollege provides, among other things, teacher training in nature-inclusive teaching and funds the chair of Maria Tengö, professor of Human-Nature Relations in the Anthropocene.
Several well-known WUR names are associated with the network organisation, who previously told Resource about their nature-inclusive initiatives, such as professor Arjen Wals (‘whole university approach‘), lecturer and PhD candidate Reineke van Tol (outdoor education and research), lecturer Lian Kasper (‘connection with nature can be trained‘) and emeritus professor Matthijs Schouten (human-nature relationship).
Sustainability 100
It is also worth mentioning that Scientist Rebellion NL was awarded eighth place in this category, an initiative in which several Wageningen residents are also involved. On Thursday 9 October, the overall leaders of the Sustainability 100 of 2025 will be announced.
Translated with DeepL.
