During my assignment as Co-Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (starting july 2023 and planned to end early 2030) I’ve written a series of songs that together form the collection The IPCC Songs.
Each song refers to a mental, practical or moral aspect of climate change, the societal response to it, the individual’s perceptions, considerations of responsibility or agency, and other themes. Together they testify of my personal journey and reflections on the topic and my role.
Most songs are arranged for a chamber orchestra similar to the Deltares ensemble Atledica, consisting of one or two lead singers, a piano, two or three string instruments, several woodwind and one or two brass instruments. Lyrics are mostly based on existing poems or classical texts, adjusted to the structure of the song.
Recordings are produced on my Digital Audio Workstation with Cubase, Dorico and VSL arranger and virtual instrument software.
Change (2024) – Reworked from an earlier composition for a KNMI celebration, based on a classical Aristoteles text that documents the ever changing weather conditions and dynamics of rivers and oceans. It frames climate as an eternal process of change, and deliberates on cause and effects.
Het is wat het is (2022) – the (Dutch) lyrics are from the poem of the Austrian poet Erich Fried, and it describes our struggle with changing conditions, where a mental state of love gives room for accepting the new situation as a fact of live.
All those Pretty Little Horses (2023) – written to express my desire to care for my grandchilren. Not only by taking care of the future climate via my job, but also to keep paying attention to them right now while they’re growing up. The beautiful poem All those Pretty Little Horses, by an anonymous poet found in the collection Poems that make grown men cry, is spot on.
The Road not Taken (2025) – A composition created a few years ago during a masterclass composing, reworked with the famous poem from Robert Frost. The text so elegantly describes the many choices people have to make in order to prepare for the future, and that there will always be doubts whether the choices made have the better impact.
The Day the World Ends (2025) – Inspired by an essay about hope that cites the poem by Czeslaw Milosz describing an ordinary day that is supposed to be the day the world will come to an end. Bees are circling for clover, sparrows playing in the water, children are born as ever. No-one believes that this will be the world’s last day. It’s a metaphor of the meaningfulness to keep on pursuing what we do every day, even in less glorious episodes.
For the one (2026) – Written during my wife’s hospital recovery. It blends a number of impactful impressions in that period, drafted around an English translation of the Ramses Shaffy song “Zing, vecht, huil, bid, lach, werk en bewonder”, which crossed my path accidentally but stayed with me strongly resonating with thoughts that kept me busy intensely. The lyrics call to take notice of all those people that have lost their sense of belonging to this world, which is at the heart of societies that have to deal with changing conditions. But this sense of belonging also is so appropriate for my wife’s condition at that time! It’s rhythm is inspired on a spontaneous drum roll I started at an IPCC Lead Author Meeting in December 2025. I listened a lot to Vivaldi’s strings of The Four Seasons. And I am indepted to the Nederlands Blazers Ensemble interpretation of “Crosswinds” by Tamer Finarbasi.
More will come.