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Climate refugees and role of science diplomacy

The challenges and consequences of climate change such as migrations have brought together governments around the world to advance scientific knowledge and programmatic actions to develop mitigation strategies while promoting sustainable development. 

It is against this background, recognising the need for a stronger science-policy interface and that Science Diplomacy is a key tool to find common solutions to unlock the potential of migrants, that the CEI decided to support the Project CREATE Climate Refugees Exist: let’s stArt to Talk about it led by the National Institute of Oceanography and Applied Geophysics - OGS.

Through specific workshops and lectures, the activity - in line both with the UN 2030 Agenda and the CEI strategy - especially focused on fostering Science Diplomacy involving research institutions, universities and international bodies operating in the field of climate change, migration and international cooperation; on awareness-raising about climate change and refugees involving the scientific and local communities; on boosting the role of Trieste as a key city where information on the issue of climate refugees could be provided as well as on creating an information-tool based on the role-play approach in order to understand different perspectives and interests.

The final CREATE conference held in Trieste on 15 December tackled the issue of climate change as a root cause for migration both from an international and scientific point of view, with contributions delivered by Matteo Valentinuz, Protection Associate, UNHCR and Marco Reale, Researcher expert in Climate Change, OGS. 

The CEI - Executive Secretariat was represented by Senior Executive Officer Alessandro Lombardo who highlighted the important role the CEI could play to support science-policy interactions able to generate interdisciplinary knowledge and scientific evidence, the best tool to tackle disinformation and false narratives proliferating around polarising issues such as migration.

The gathering included the presentation of the innovative role-playing game developed within the project. A print - & - play version is freely downloadable online:


For more info: lombardo@cei.int

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