On April 11, 2018, the scientific team of the running EDGE – Environmental Diplomacy and Geopolitics project held a special session Politics of environmental changes: mapping the interactions between migration, territories and natural resources within the AAG 2018 congress in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. Despite the early scheduled time for the session, the presentations brought attention of conference attendants. The annual meeting of the American Association of Geographers is one of the world’s biggest scientific events hosting regularly more than 9,000 scholars of different backgrounds.
The EDGE scientific team of scholars from University of Economics in Bratislava, University of Liège and SciencesPo Paris presented four original papers on various topics, covering environmental tipping points, water resources, refugee crisis, as well as development-induced displacement. Paula Puskarova and Caroline Zickgraf presented their preliminary results on the different patterns of green and immigration attitudes across Europe. Mikulas Cernota and Rudolf Kucharcik discussed the topic of environmental tipping points as inklings to adaptation policies. Mykhaylo Kunychka and Leonid Raneta addressed migration in Eastern Europe in relation to water issues, whereby they focused on the Donbas crisis. The presentation by Natalia Hlavova and Michaela Ciefova covered the topic of development-induced displacement originated from construction of water dams in Slovakia and the Czech Republic. The session was chaired by Professor Francois Gemenne, recently appointed the author of the upcoming IPCC Assessment Report 6.
The special session was facilitated by the European Commission‘s Horizon 2020 project EDGE – Environmental Diplomacy and Geopolitics, GA No. 692413. The project initiated the training of new generation of leaders in the field of environmental relations and policies and served as a springboard for new activities facilitating environmental talks with more engagement of young scholars. The project brings this year the EDGE summer school in Liège and the final conference in Bratislava.
