Governance of Climate Mobilities

Climate change is one of a whole host of global changes that is influencing where people live and how they migrate. The impacts of climate change combine with demographic changes, changes in how we use energy and land, in our consumption patterns, and in economic and social transformations, resulting in very complex situations. Recently, the coronavirus pandemic has provided a very stark example of how socio-ecological risks can transform the everyday lives of people and limit their mobility choices. Just as the pandemic seemed to be coming under control, the war in Ukraine has caused the highest number of refugees in Europe since the second world war, all the while highlighting the vulnerability of our energy systems. These world events underscore how global changes and where people can live are linked in complex ways, and the necessity of effective governance. But how are rules developed to govern such complex situations? Especially when so many policy areas come together, who gets a say? How do policymakers understand this interplay of global changes from their different perspectives? What are the overlaps and differences and how can holistic policy responses emerge? The project Governing Climate Mobilities addresses exactly these questions, to understand how policymakers at the international level are understanding the impacts global changes, in particular climate change, have on where people live. The project will analyse global policy processes in a variety of policy areas. Interviews will also be conducted with policymakers working in different policy areas, such as development, agriculture, food, health, environment and climate policy to understand how these perspectives differ between policy areas. Since crisis terminology is very prevalent in both climate change and migration politics respectively, this project will also ask how global changes being understood as crises influences how policy decisions are made. The project also explores alternatives, including the idea of social tipping points, whereby small changes may trigger a bigger significant social change, even leading to a completely different state of a social system. Discussions with policymakers surrounding social tipping points will be facilitated by the work of project partners in the overarching PHOENIX project in which this project is embedded. Project partners will be providing databases, models, and empirical research with migrants on these social tipping points what they are, how they interact, and how they affect peoples lives and migration journeys that will provide new impulses for policy conversations.