A session of the Seminar on sustainable development and environmental economics

Estimates of future numbers of migrants as a result of climate change suggest that there will be large flows of people in the future. Are these estimates realistic? And if they are, what are the possible response options?

Jill Jäger provides some answers to these two questions using results from the EU-funded research project EACH-FOR (Environmental Change and Forced Migration Scenarios), which was completed very recently (www.each-for.eu). The project had two central aims: (1) to explore and describe the causes of forced migration in relation to environmental change; and (2) provide plausible future scenarios of environmentally-induced forced migration. In addition to fieldwork or desk studies in 23 case study areas, the project took some initial steps in scenario development and analysis.