Current issue: 58(4)
As a follow-up on acid rain programmes many countries, e.g. Finland, the Netherlands, Sweden, launched national research programmes on Climate Change by the end of the eighties. Other countries centred new programmes on Global Change, such as Belgium, United Kingdom, Germany, Canada. Also, the European Community included the climate issue in the research programme 'Environment & Climate'. The conclusion of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) shifted in the successive assessment reports from possible climate change to actual climate change. The paper describes the first and second phase of the Dutch Climate Change Research Programme, and discusses the future of the programme.