Objective
The HABITABLE project is centred around the concept of habitability and seeks to advance our understanding of how climate change does and will affect migration and displacement patterns. It does so through the mobilisation of innovative methods to explore key research gaps, implemented by a diverse, experienced consortium associating 21 partners from different disciplines and representing a number of regions of the world, including local partners from West Africa, East Africa, South Africa and Southeast Asia. The project seeks to understand not only how climate change causes migration, but also how climate impacts, policies and perceptions interact with each other and influence migration patterns in a systems-based approach. We introduce the concept of social tipping points as a fresh way to understand how environmental disruptions can potentially trigger major social changes. The project intentionally steers away from simple linearity assumptions in an innovative research design that will focus on the entire social-ecological system, accounting for climate impacts and their perceptions, as well as adaptation options and their implementation, in order to determine the conditions for social tipping points and sustainable policy options for preventing large-scale displacement. The project mobilizes fresh methodologies and datasets in case-studies in Africa and Asia that are relevant for European policy-making. The project pursues a non-deterministic understanding of the impact of climate change on migration, and enables a systematic comprehension and appreciation of the complex social, economic and environmental interactions involved. This allows us to develop policy-relevant migration scenarios. On this basis, the project will propose a number of adaptation options for populations affected by climate change, as well as recommendations to inform key policies, in particular the European Agenda on Migration.