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Human migration has been identified as an important response to climate-induced environmental stress. By worsening the living conditions in certain places or even making habitation impossible, environmental stress induces individuals to move from one place to another. Migration represents an important factor of adaptation. This strategy, however, is not available to all individuals. The inability to migrate of some groups, for example the poorest, the eldest and women may expose a large number of people to great risks. 

At the same time, migration may produce indirect effects on resources and populations, generating ripple mechanisms that affect regions located at a great distance from the ones directly hit. Migration might cause new sources of stress in the receiving countries, it might become a driver of social unrest or intensify an uneven resource distribution.  With the change in climate that current concentrations of greenhouse gas have already committed us to, environmental stress is bound to increase, and even more so in areas which are particularly vulnerable to it.

A better understanding of the links between a changing climate and migration, as well as the implied indirect effects, is key to designing policies and strategies to enable adaptation to environmental stress.

The conference aims at deepening our understanding of the impacts of climate-induced environmental stress on human systems, with a particular focus on migration. It aims to shed further lights on the actual link between environment and migration, the channels by which environment and migration are related  and the indirect effects of climate-induced migration. Moreover, the conference intends to bring leading experts from various relevant disciplines and domains who carry out research related to migration and climate/disaster.

During the second day a policy roundtable will be organized. Prominent members from the academy and from organizations most involved in policy making will be asked to discuss pressing issues and explore ways to contribute to migration policies that take into considerations the last results on the connection between climate change and migration.


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