Friday, December 9, 2016

Environmental migration in GEO-6 and a trip to Dublin

I've been asked to be a contributing author to the UN Environment Programme's next Global Environmental Outlook report (GEO-6), which will be published in 2019. If you're not familiar with it, the GEO is UNEP's flagship publication that provides periodic assessments of the state of the global environment, organized around regions (which will begin appearing in the next year) and thematic assessments (e.g. land, oceans, air, etc), with the whole thing and a synthesis for policymakers to come out in 2019. The aim is not to generate new research, but to synthesize existing research to guide international policy making, development planning, and so forth - in a similar way that IPCC reporting informs global climate policy.

I've been asked to be a "cross-cutting" author, expected to contribute sections on environmental migration where appropriate in these assessments. The first authors' meeting will be in February, at which time I'll have a better idea of the scope and nature of the contributions I'll be expected to make. The reason I'm mentioning this here is that I will be reaching out in 2017 to other scholars working in the field of environmental migration and displacement for their input and suggestions - so please consider this a 'heads up'. I have a relatively good handle on research that has come out in recent years, but I'll be especially interested in being kept up to date on any new research or findings that come out in peer-reviewed journals in 2017-18. I'm hoping you will be able to help guide me in this process, and if you hear of anything really interesting coming out (or if you have some new research being published), please let me know via my Facebook page

On another note, from January to July 2017 I will be in Dublin as a visiting academic in the department of geography at Trinity College, one of the world's grand old academic institutions. It's my sabbatical and I have a number of writing projects I hope to complete with a boost from Ireland's sunny winter weather, plus being in Dublin will give me the opportunity to work more closely with European colleagues. Let me know if you're in the vicinity!

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