In 1988, in a newly created position, he became advisor to the Minister of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment on the issue of Climate Change and the development of international CO2 policies.
This article also proposed for the first time a traffic-light visualization - based on red, yellow, green colours - that since then has been largely employed in risk management and climate change communication.
[2] In 2009 he initiated the international Delta Alliance, a collaboration among low-lying coastal areas in the world vulnerable to climate change.
These programs support the Dutch government and companies with operational knowledge required for investment decisions related to climate change adaptation and mitigation.
He has frequently appeared in news media and participated in several interviews and scientific documentaries made by national and international broadcasting cooperation's including BBC, ABC, CNN and Discovery.
[4] Vellinga's views on climate change are set out in his SID-lecture from 2008 and his 2008 inaugural lecture "Hoogtij in de Delta" at Wageningen UR.