7 / 36
DELTARES, September 2016
7
‘PUT A PRICE TAG
ON NATURE’
You will rarely hear a more impassioned case for hard numbers
than the one made by Kitty van der Heijden, the director of the
World Resources Institute Europe. She believes that the solutions
to global problems were never so close. ‘Believe me: miracles
were achieved in Paris. But we're not there yet.’
BY PJOTR VAN LENTEREN / IMAGE FRANK RUITER
K
itty van der Heijden grew up in a family
of entrepreneurs in Rotterdam. After a
degree in economics that she concluded
with a study of illegal abortion among
Mexican women, she became increasingly
socially committed. She sees sustain-
ability and equality as being closely interrelated. After
building up a career as a Dutch civil servant, ultimately
as an ambassador for sustainable development, she is
now the director of the European branch of the World
Resources Institute, where she uses hard numbers to
fight for a sustainable and socially responsible approach
to natural resources. What is at the top of her wish list?
‘Water, water and water.’
People who see your website and presentations
could get somewhat downhearted. Tough num-
bers, major challenges.
‘That's right. But we can cope with those challenges.
Downhearted? Well, that's the way it has to be: the level
of awareness is much too low. When I was appointed sus-
tainability ambassador at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Ambassador many years ago, some of my colleagues
said they were sorry for me. You couldn't have a real
career with green issues. And outside the ministry too, I
mainly encountered ignorance, scepticism and a lack of
interest. That is something we can no longer afford.’
Does banging on about making a better world
really help?
‘It is necessary and it helps. I have seen a change at the
government level in recent times but, at the moment,
the corporate sector is taking the lead. I am also a
member of the supervisory board at the multinational
Unilever, where we are looking at a bill of 300million due
to climate change: crop failures, flooded factories and
warehouses, damaged motorways. Once you know about
these things, you want to tackle the underlying problem.’
That sounds fine but whenwill multinationals
really get towork?
‘We need more of them on board, and things are still not
moving fast enough. But steps are being taken. Thanks to
Global Forest Watch, one of the tools we developed with
forty partners, it is possible to tackle the deforestation as-
sociated with the production of palm oil. The satellite im-
ages are so sharp that you can even see the colour of the
perpetrators' T-shirts. Using the information from those
images, Unilever stopped working with a major supplier
recently. But local activists can also use this public, and
freely available, information to make their voices heard.’
Now for the politicians.
‘That's right. We are very happy with the results achieved
in Paris. Believe me: miracles were achieved there. We are