The agencies of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) Task Force on Climate Change have published papers dealing with the humanitarian impacts of climate change.

UNU-EHS is part of the IASC Task Force on Climate Change, Migration and Displacement and participates in IASC´s activities.

Focusing on different effects of climate change like health, migration and displacement, the papers suggest coping strategies by putting a special emphasis on disaster risk reduction and local level adaptation.

Please click on "read more" below for a full list of the papers on the humanitarian impacts of climate change.

The report titled “In Search of Shelter: Mapping the Effects of Climate Change on Human Migration and Displacement” by Dr Koko Warner from UNU-EHS and Dr Charles Ehrhart from CARE International, highlights that climate change is already contributing to migration and displacement and that there will be tens of millions of migrants within the next few years. These findings were presented to the delegates and the international media at the Bonn Climate Change Talks in June 2009.

Download the full report In Search of Shelter.

On 25 June 2009, the Economist published a detailed article on environmentally induced migration titled "A New (Under) Class of Travellers". The articles cites the "In Search of Shelter" expert report on the issue, which was co-authored and published by CARE International, UNU-EHS, Columbia University and UNHCR.

To read the full article in English, please click here.

Download the report In Search of Shelter.

A delegation of three interdisciplinary experts from Congo Brazzaville was dispatched to South Africa from 4th – 11th June where they attended, amongst others, the training course on “Disaster Risk Reduction and Vulnerability”, a United Nations University Vice Rectorate in Europe (UNU-ViE) initiative organized by the UNU-EHS and the Disaster Risk Management Training and Education Centre for Africa (DiMTEC) of the University of the Free State (UFS). The ultimate goal of the trainings is to establish a center for disaster risk management and prevention in Brazzaville, the capital of the Republic of Congo.

At the open event „Science meets Media” the lecturing scientist and media expert Dr Karla Sponar gave tips on how to contact the media and said that although it is difficult for scientists to get their message across, there is a growing market for reliable expert information which needs to be focused and easy to understand.

Scientific messages for the media need to focus on one aspect of a topic in order to get through because “the media has its own world”, said Dr Sponar and explained: “The media landscape has changed, journalists need to produce news to use. They work in very busy news rooms and need to produce news to sell.” This makes it difficult for complex scientific issues to be covered in detail.

“The Megacity Resilience Framework” by Carsten Butsch, Benjamin Etzold and Patrick Sakdapolrak, provides policy recommendations on how to increase the resilience and sustainability of megacities where more than half of the world’s population is living today.

Download the Policy Brief "The Megacity Resilience Framework" here.

The successful “Five years UNU in Bonn” report, edited by Ilona Roberts, has been reprinted. The second edition is now available in print or electronic version.

Five fruitful years have passed since the first seeds of UNU in Bonn were planted. This publication looks back at the growth and accomplishments of UNU-EHS, and other entities of UNU in Bonn such as UNU-ViE and the two hosted entities UNW-DPC and UNU-IHDP. The publication assembles the thoughts and memories of all those who contributed and supported the UNU in Bonn, as well as facts and figures concerning all entities.
For a detailed and colorful look at the Five Years of UNU in Bonn (2nd Edition), please download the electronic version of the report here
or order your personal print copy by writing an .

“Bonn Points”, a brief summary of the outcomes of the Environment, Forced Migration and Social Vulnerability (EFMSV) International Conference in October 2008, is now available online. UNU-EHS initiated the idea of this summary to capture the answers to the critical questions that required examination during the event.

Answers from over 300 participants have been put together and condensed into this document. The EFMSV organising committee state that they hope that the Bonn Points effectively distil the spirit of the conference, highlight its findings and indicate “terra incognita” for further research on environmentally induced migration.

Download the EFMSV outcome summary, "Bonn Points".

The report titled “In Search of Shelter: Mapping the Effects of Climate Change on Human Migration and Displacement” by Dr Koko Warner from UNU-EHS and Dr Charles Ehrhart from CARE International, highlights that climate change is already contributing to migration and displacement and that there will be tens of millions of migrants within the next few years. These findings were presented to the delegates and the international media at the Bonn Climate Change Talks in June 2009.

The new report is published by UNU-EHS, CARE International and Columbia University’s Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN), UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the World Bank, Social Dimension of Climate Change Team.

The new report is based in part on empirical evidence from a recently completed research project supported by the European Commission: Environmental Change and Forced Migration Scenarios (EACH-FOR, Contract Number 044468, www.each-for.eu).

At an official side-event on 2 June 2009, co-organised by UNU-EHS, the two authors, Dr Warner and Dr Ehrhart, shared their findings with the delegates. They underlined the importance for the issue of environmental migration to be included in the successive Kyoto Protocol.

Download the report In Search of Shelter.

Find the CARE International press release in English and German.

Official website of CARE International.

See the international press coverage here.

Scientists of UNU-EHS were among the international experts presenting their research findings at the disaster risk reduction conference focusing on water related disasters at DiMTEC (Disaster Management Training and Education Centre for Africa) at the University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa. The conference took place on 26 and 27 May 2009.

UNU-EHS has partnered with DiMTEC through its Cooperation Unit in Southern Africa (UNU-CUSA). The goal of this partnership is to offer professional training courses for mid-career professionals on vulnerability and risk assessment. The 2009 seminar was the second one to be held, the first took place in 2008.

Official website of DiMTEC and its Water Related Disasters Conference 2009.

Prof. Dr. Janos Bogardi gave his “Last Lecture” at the University Club (UNICLUB) Bonn, on 30 April 2009. The event was organised to commemorate the end of his tenure as Vice-Rector a.i. in Europe of the United Nations University and as the Director of the United Nations University Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS). On this occasion, he and the President of the UNICLUB, Prof. Dr. Max Huber, signed an agreement of scientific cooperation, initiating a new annual public event series addressing different aspects of vulnerability. A successor for Prof. Bogardi has not been appointed yet and for the next months, Prof. Bogardi will continue to support the institute´s work as director.

"This “Last Lecture” event is not to simply celebrate the end of the tenure of Prof. Bogardi with UNU, but also the opportunity, in true Prof.-Bogardi-fashion, to start something new”, said Dr. Fabrice Renaud, Associate Director, UNU-EHS, referring to the agreement signed between the UNU and the UNICLUB Bonn.

During an interview, Dr Koko Warner, Head of Environmental Migration, Social Vulnerability & Adaptation Section at UNU-EHS, explained the term “environmentally induced migrant” and confirmed that climate change is happening right now.

“Climate change is real; we’ve always had climate change. What is different now is the rate of climate change and the role people play in it,” said Dr Warner to the International Relations and Security Network.

Listen to Dr Koko Warner's full interview in English.

"Linking Environmental Change, Migration and Social Vulnerability", edited by Anthony Oliver-Smith and Xiaomeng Shen, presents the articles of seven of the PHD researchers who took part in the third UNU-EHS Summer Academy of the Munich Re Foundation.

The researchers give a literature overview of environmental migration, concepts, and the legal and institutional frameworks. Using different case studies, they illustrate how vulnerable people are to environmental changes and how migration can be a coping strategy when responding and adapting to changing environments. In this context, the authors also discuss examples of resettlement and replacement patterns.

Download SOURCE No. 12/2009.

23.4.2009 The United Nations University (UNU) and the Universitätsclub (UNICLUB) Bonn sign an agreement of scientific co-operation on Thursday, 30 April 2009. The agreement initiates the new annual public event series “Dag Hammarskjöld Lecture” addressing different aspects of vulnerability. This occasion will also be the last lecture of the director of UNU-EHS and Vice Rector a.i. in Europe, Prof. Dr. Janos Bogardi.

Download the press release in English or German.

“Confronting Environmental Migration; A Framework for Research, Policy and Practice” is the first issue of our new Research Brief series. The authors, David Wrathall and Benjamin Morris, are two PhD candidates that participated in the UNU-EHS MRF Summer Academy on Environmental Change, Migration and Social Vulnerability 2008.

The research brief summarizes key findings of a series of events dedicated to forced migration organised by UNU-EHS. It aims to identify crucial issues on the subject to put together a research agenda in the field of environmental migration.

Download the new research brief, "Confronting Environmental Migration; A Framework for Research, Policy and Practice".