Lecture to be held by Dr. Beroya-Eitner in the framework of the international Professional Course on Global Migration

In the last decades, climate change has emerged as an important driver of population movement as it brings extreme environmental changes, and as such acts as a risk multiplier.

In this lecture on Climate Change as an Emerging Driver of Human Mobility, Dr. Mary Antonette Beroya-Eitner, Senior Researcher and Coordinator of International Research and Cooperation at the Institute of Geotechnics – Technical University of Darmstadt, will discuss how these extreme environmental changes are leading to displacements of population from their homes or forcing them into migration. She will discuss the challenges in conceptualizing and addressing the Climate Change and Human Mobility Nexus and the need for multidisciplinary, transnational, and cross-organizational approaches to dealing with these challenges in order to build resilience and reduce mobility impact and risk.

In particular, the role of the geoscientists and geo-engineers in the different phases of climate change-triggered movement will be highlighted. For instance, preventing said movement in the first place would require not only a global solidarity to reduce carbon emission, but also the means to capture and store already existing carbon in the atmosphere, hazard maps for input to land-use and urban planning, resilient critical infrastructure and climate change-resistant engineering construction, among others. Superimposed with the prevention phase is the mitigation and adaptation phase, where measures such as early warning systems and green-grey infrastructures will be invaluable. Finally, should movement prove really inevitable, the geo-scientific and engineering community will also be crucial in ensuring that safety and mitigating measures are also emplaced in the host destination.

Dr. Beroya-Eitner’s lecture is part of the international Professional Course on Global Migration organized by the University of the Philippines, Centre International de Formation des Autorités et Leaders (CIFAL)-Philippines and United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR).