Climate change is an important factor in environmentally induced migration, mostly within countries, but also across borders, motivated by deliberate decisions to manage risks or adapt to changing environments and affected local economies, or driven by environmental disasters and emergencies.
Policy-relevant research on climate migration is a tremendously complex effort because it starts at the roots of migration in a specific community, gets into dialogue with the locals, needs to be translated into adequate policy advice, helping to unfold its potential to change people’s lives and living conditions. It needs an understanding of diverse social, political and environmental contexts, and communication with multiple stakeholder on local and international levels – and, thus, well-connected experts in diverse domains.
The partner organizations of the Bonn Alliance for Sustainability Research gather these connected experts under their roofs. The Bonn Alliance is a research network which jointly investigates the dynamics of global change in an inter- and transdisciplinary manner. As the networking of multiple sectors and stakeholders for sustainability research and science is deeply rooted in its DNA, the Bonn Alliance Head Office facilitates a discussion on the role of networked science on climate migration with regards to people and policies. Three Bonn Alliance partner experts provide insights into stories from the field and multiple-stakeholder negotiations:
Dr. Zaneta Kubik, Senior Researcher at the Center for Development Research (ZEF) of the University of Bonn; an economist with a focus on climate change and migration in Africa.
Dr. Benjamin Schraven, Senior Researcher at the German Development Institute / Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE) in the Research Programme “Environmental Governance”; a social scientist with a focus on migration and development (policies), environmental change and migration, and adaptation to climate change.
Dr. Kees van der Geest, Head of the Environment and Migration: Interactions and Choices Section (EMIC) at the Institute of Environment and Human Security of the United Nations University (UNU-EHS); a human geographer with a focus on the impacts of climate change, human mobility, environmental change, adaptation, livelihood resilience and rural development.
The discussion is moderated by Dr. Koko Warner (UNFCCC) who has shared her research findings with policy makers on the impacts of climate change on household migration and risk management decisions around the world. Now at UNFCCC, she manages the sub-program on climate “Impacts, Vulnerability and Risks” at UNFCCC.
The audience is warmly welcome to use the chat function of the platform to interact with the panellists, by asking, commenting, or adding cases and experiences themselves.
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This October, ICLEI and the Federal City of Bonn are excited to welcome you to Daring Cities 2020, a virtual, global forum on climate change for urban leaders tackling the climate emergency, especially in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Daring Cities 2020 will run from 7-28 October 2020, offering an online array of high level and visionary speaking sessions, a series of informative workshops and personal networking opportunities. Over a three-week period, attendees will have access to a variety of virtual formats to accommodate different topics, time zones, internet bandwidth limits, and languages. The event will help to set the course to COP26, Daring Cities 2021 and beyond.
Source: Bonn Alliance for Sustainability Research/ Innovation Campus Bonn (ICB), September 2020