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Centre for Sustainable Development Studies (CSDS) CSDS

Research

Centre for Sustainable Development Studies

Our researchers investigate the various ways social sciences, and the interdisciplinary work, contribute to a sustainable world. Read more about the aims, teams and outcomes of our research projects.
Our projects
  • CLIFF | Climate change, financial coherence and leaving fossil fuels underground in the changing north-south context

    To combat global warming, we have to stop using fossil fuels. This will have a major impact on both investors in related industries who will have to write off trillions of dollars and developing countries that had hoped to use the fossil fuel industry to drive economic growth. This project looks into the roles of the various different stakeholders and develops tools to help them all move towards climate-resilient change and inclusive development.

    We argue that to halt climate change, the 2015 Paris Agreement implicitly requires leaving fossil fuels (FF) underground (LFFU) and coherent financial flows. This implies stranding huge amounts of FF resources and assets (worth $16-300 trillion), affecting big investors: FF firms, shareholders (pension funds/philanthropies), debt financers (aid agencies/development banks) and governments. Research is scarce on big investors, the implications for developing countries with FF resources, and how LFFU can be equitably mobilized.

    CLIFF combines institutional analysis and a theory of change for inclusive development (ICID) using a transdisciplinary, comparative case study approach. CLIFF will prepare an Interactive Atlas, and a Stranded Asset Index, co-create equitable policy instruments and assess strategies of agents of change to make such climate policy instruments politically feasible and effective. Rather than ‘Building Back Better’ from the COVID-19 pandemic, CLIFF strives for Catalysing Climate-resilient Change.

    Case studies

    CLIFF is using a transdisciplinary, comparative case study approach and has identified nine countries/regions within which these financial actors operate. From the industrialized world, CLIFF will examine the EU, UK, US and Canada; from the G77 & China: Brazil, South Africa, India and China; the BASIC countries; and possibly Saudi Arabia. These countries are selected since they are dominant players in financial flows and investments in FF, and have a strong potential blocking or promoting role in LFFU. In addition, Ghana, Kenya, Uganda and Mozambique will be studied as LMICs that are developing themselves as FF producers.

    CLIFF is funded by the European Research Council and runs for a period of five years (Nov 2021- Nov 2026).

    Know the project team

    Principal investigator

    Joyeeta Gupta

    Postdoc

    Global Inventory of FF and Financial Flows
    (to be appointed)

    PhDs

    • Augusto Heras | Focuses on Low- & Middle-Income Countries
    • Frank de Morrée | His work relates to Philanthropic Foundations
    • (Ja)Nina Herzog-Hawelka | Her research deals with Fossil Fuel Firms
    • Moataz Yakan Talaat | His work relates to Debt Financiers
    • Clara McDonnell | Her research focuses on Pension Funds

    Master Students

    Together they work as a team on comparative and integrative research to ensure that the sum of all projects is significantly more than the sum of the individual work of each researcher.

    • Inès Boivin, Claire Boogard, Thomas Cordes, Giuliana Gentile, Lynn Haasloop-Werner, Robin Hids, Juliette Linn, Marc Olsen, Vivien Schüßler, Gabriela Zuntová, Quynh Anh Chu, Glenn Dijks, Ben Kapadia, Blanca Reemst, Marika Schmitz, Ellen Snaathorst, Phani Varnava, Elise Granlie, Ingrid Ronglan, Janne Piper.
    Executive summary of CLIFF Conference CLIFF project website

BRIDGES Sustainability

Research Priority Area

Research priority areas (RPA's) bring together researchers on specific research fields transcending disciplinary boundaries. At BRIDGES, Our goal is to enable epistemological, theoretical, and methodological innovations and integrations regarding sustainability research through interdisciplinary projects.

Transformative change is needed

With growing environmental emergencies such as climate change and loss of biodiversity, transformative change is needed to prevent ballooning social and ecological costs. While technological and policy solutions are largely known, implementation is slow largely due to socio-behavioural and governance factors. The drivers and barriers to social and behavioural change on sustainability differ between actors (individual, social, organizational, institutional), scope (e.g., energy, resources, food) and scale (local to global). Tackling sustainability challenges thus requires a multi-scalar and multi-dimensional perspective. This is why BRIDGES aims to unite and advance social and behavioural perspectives spanning from individual to institutional and local to global.

CSDS Awarded Research Grants
  • Balancing Demands: Exploring the “Priority of Use” in Global Water Allocation (2025)
    • BRIDGES M Grant – 30,000 EUR 

    Names of affiliated researchers 

    • Joyeeta Gupta (Department of Geography, Planning and International Development Studies – GPIO, UvA) 

    • Ursula Daxecker (Department of Political Science, UvA) 

    • Andrea Mueller (Department of Geography, Planning and International Development Studies – GPIO, UvA) 

    • Hilmer J. Bosch (Department of Geography, Planning and International Development Studies – GPIO, UvA)  

    Funding organisations 

    Research Priority Area (RPA) BRIDGES – Sustainability, Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences (FMG), University of Amsterdam  

    Duration of the project 

    • April 2025 – December 2025  

    Project description

    The project investigates how the principle of “Priority of Use” (PU) is defined and applied in global water allocation, a growing governance challenge as climate change, population growth, and economic development intensify competition for scarce water resources. While many countries formally recognise PU in their water laws, little is known about what uses are prioritised, how these priorities are operationalised, and whether they contribute to just and equitable water distribution. 

    The project combines three strands of research: (1) a semi-systematic review of academic and grey literature on PU and water-related conflicts; (2) a conceptual operationalisation of PU using the Earth System Justice framework; and (3) a comparative analysis of water laws in more than 100 countries to map how, and whether, priority of use is embedded in legal frameworks. The results will be translated into a global database and visual maps that enable cross-country learning. 

    By integrating perspectives from geography and political science and linking local water demands to global justice concerns, the project contributes to BRIDGES’ aim of fostering interdisciplinary sustainability research and advancing fair and effective water governance.