Human dynamics of climate change

Topic description

Specific Challenge:

As climatic changes increasingly place populations under pressure, human beings are already adapting. However, less developed countries – particularly in Africa – are often less resilient to climate change and require the deployment of appropriate support to adaptation, including in the form of bespoke climate services tailored to users' needs. There is some evidence that climate change may already be playing a role in shaping population migration patterns around the world (e.g. Africa to Europe). It is important to make use of the wealth of available socio-economic and geophysical data to better understand these patterns in order to develop appropriate policy responses.

Actions should address only one of the following sub-topics:

a) Climate services for Africa: Actions should exploit new, relevant climate data made available by Copernicus and other relevant sources (such as GEOSS) and create dedicated climate services for Africa for at least two of the following sectors: water, energy, food security, land use^[1], health and infrastructure. Actions should develop and deliver tools/applications which demonstrate clear end-user engagement, consultation and participation, and which enhance planning and implementation of climate adaptation strategies in Africa. Actions should consider activities addressed by other initiatives such as the Global Framework for Climate Services (GFCS), Copernicus, and development cooperation activities, and provide added value. Actions should further consider the EU-Africa Research and Innovation Partnership on Climate Change and Sustainable Energy^[2].

b) Climate and human migration: Actions should identify and analyse drivers relating to climate change that may affect human migration and displacement patterns. Actions should – using a multidisciplinary approach – identify and describe climate parameters, develop analytical methodologies, and demonstrate how these relate to human migration patterns, including the probability of migration/forced displacement and design adaptation solutions that may help in alleviating migration pressures at the source. They should also provide guidelines and policy recommendations for the European Agenda on Migration. Actions may also harness local knowledge and information by engaging with civil society organisations and citizen groups.

For both of the sub-topics, in line with the strategy for EU international cooperation in research and innovation (COM(2012)497), international cooperation is encouraged^[3].

The participation of social sciences and humanities disciplines is encouraged to address the complex challenges of this topic, including challenges associated with relevant gender issues.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 5 million and EUR 7 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

The project results are expected to contribute to:

• better policy making for climate adaptation in partner countries and Europe;
• supporting international scientific assessments such as the IPCC Assessment Reports;
• stronger adaptive capacity and climate resilience.

Gender
International cooperation
Open Innovation
RRI
Socio-economic science and humanities

[1]Links may be established with the project(s) resulting from topic SFS-43-2017: Earth observation services for the monitoring of agricultural production in Africa.

[2]COM (2017) 17 final: Joint Communication to the European Parliament and the Council for a renewed impetus of the Africa-EU Partnership: see http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:52017JC0017&from=EN

[3]Proposals should pay attention to the special call conditions for this topic.