Current Work: Climate Displacement
Research project: Alex Arnall and Chris Hilson are exploring how coastal communities are being affected by sea level rise and climate change and how they develop solutions in response. They want to understand the different ways in which people advance their own interests and claims in the face of these challenges in addition to the measures and protections provided by regional and national authorities. As part of this work, in September 2021 they will be visiting the community of Fairbourne, a small, coastal settlement in north Wales, that has received media attention recently as being threatened by displacement due to sea level rise. They will be speaking with people in Fairbourne to learn more about their experiences and how they are framing and articulating their own climate justice-based claims in response to this challenge.
Workshop: ‘Climate displacement and resettlement: what scope for claims-making ‘from below’?’. This workshop in 2017 brought together academics, NGOs and policymakers in discussion around four areas relevant to community claims-making in the face of climate displacement: attribution and perceptions of climate change; group representation and identity in claims-making; indigenous groups and legacies of displacement and resettlement; internally displaced persons and the role of global and regional actors in standard-setting, monitoring and assistance.
Publication: Draper, J. and McKinnon, C.: ‘The Ethics of Climate-Induced Community Displacement and Resettlement’, WIRES Climate Change, 2018.
PhD student: Juliana Velez-Echeverri. Project: ‘Climate-Induced Displacement and Resettlement and Human Rights in Colombia’.
PhD student: Jamie Draper (Politics). Project: ‘Climate Change, Migration, and Justice’.
PhD student: Africa Bauza Arcicollar (Agriculture, Policy and Development). Project: ‘Pluralising the Debate: A Study of Local Perceptions of Climate Justice and Forced Migration’.