Yuri

and

Mirjam

Raising his hands in a dramatic gesture Yuri

walks towards Mirjam This is where we make

the future happen He extends a hand to her

and f lashes a wide grin I am so happy you

could come

The entrance hall is modern stylish and

enormous and the sun shines through the tall

glass windows Mirjam shakes his hand Of

course To deal with the climate crisis we need

everyone to do their share

Yuri nods energetically And this is what we are

ready to do here at the Shell Energy Transition

Campus Then his face darkens Though

things are not made easy for us He sighs If

we were treated as a partner rather than the

enemy we could f inally put our resources to

use in the energy transition

He steps close to Mirjam You are the president

of the VU Amsterdam We should partner up

transition together For the future

Looking around the enormous building

Mirjam thinks You certainly have the cash my

researchers need She looks him straight in the

eyes Will you do your share

Yuri f lashes his grin Absolutely Mirjam I

promise

Mirjam sits at her desk in front of a pile of

dossiers but her mind is elsewhere She gazes

through the window overlooking the campus

square It is fall and it rains lightly Some

distance away a f lag f laps in the wind showing

the logos of the VU and of Shell Transition

together She has a bad feeling

On her desk her eyes catch the copy of the

interview she gave with Yuri We need to have

each others backs to withstand resistance

within our own organisations against our

collaboration Yuri said in the interview His

damn grin it reminds Mirjam of someone But

of whom She types the words Disney villain

smile into Google image search Bingo

Suddenly she hears sounds from outside

Looking out her window on the campus

square she sees a small group of people

some dressed in white lab coats When she

squints her eyes she can make out some faces

Petra is there Julia Remco and Hans as well

Those troublemakers Some days ago they

published an open letter Shell prof its from

preventing the transition as long as possible

they wrote The company knew about climate

change for decades and yet it paid scientists

and PR agencies to spread misinformation

and greenwash Shell is about the worst

possible partner for the energy transition they

concluded The business professor in her f inds

the arguments convincing And yet Politicians

handle the company with kid gloves Who is she

to take a stand when the elected leaders dont

She looks a little longer at the group below

Then she swivels her chair around and gets up

Things to do

Humancaused radiative forcing of 272 196

to 348 W m2 in 2019 relative to 1750 has

warmed the climate system Edina speaks

the sentence hesitantly into the microphone

reading from an enormous binder in front of

her How is this supposed to be read aloud The

campus square is mostly empty except for the

small group of people who stand around her to

listen Some of them are dressed in the same

white lab coat with colourful prints that she

also wears

A woman approaches the group and listens

for a while Then she looks around and asks

one of the people with a lab coat What is

happening here Niels answers We are

scientists and this is a marathon reading of

the IPCC report Do you know what the IPCC

report is The woman doesnt respond It

is the report of the Intergovernmental Panel

on Climate Change We read it because our

university collaborates with Shell one of the

largest climate polluters This is absolutely in

conf lict with all that science tells us

The woman responds And you think that

people understand what you are doing here

Niels hesitates then he replies Maybe we

dont know how to do a snappy marketing

campaign But if we scientists sta nd up for

what is the truth people will understand

that the VU must not participate in Shells

greenwashing

I see says the woman She stays a bit longer

then she leaves Sometime later Edina has

f inished her shift and someone else takes her

place to read the clunky lines from the report

Edina listens for a bit then she turns to look

at the square and the f lagpole Where did that

Transition together f lag go

Mirjam tosses the newspaper to the other side

of the desk where Yuri sits He doesnt have to

look at the headline to know what it is about

Shell will cut 200 jobs in the clean energy

division

Yuris face is unmoved We did not get the

government grant for hydrogen research And

we are a business after all

Mirjam shoots back Shell makes record

prof its from oil and gas and you f ire your clean

energy division You will never do your share

I can see that now Then she stands up and

tosses a bundle towards him You can leave

And take this with you

He looks at it the Transition together f lag

Yuri slowly rises from his chair and takes a

step to the door Then he turns around What

happened to us having each others backs

Sorry no one can do it she responds f irmly

Ive got the back of my scientists already We

are the VU after all

Clemens Kaupa

Clemens Kaupa is assistant professor at the

VU Amsterdam He is teaching and studying

climate law

wwwlinkedincominclemenskaupa

a0092824a

Clemens

Kaupa