Professor Andreas Neef - Research

Read about some of the current research projects being undertaken by Professor Andreas Neef.

International Climate Migration and Climatic Poverty

Funded by the Royal Society of New Zealand and the German Ministry of Education and German Ministry of Education and Research, this interdisciplinary research project International Climate Migration and Climatic Poverty Traps in the Asia-Pacific Region (INTERCEPT) brings together expertise from economics, development studies and information science in Germany and New Zealand to examine the role of climatic changes in triggering the decision of individuals, families and communities to migrate within and across countries.

The research team will employ a comparative behavioural approach using qualitative interviews, network analysis, standardised experiments and surveys with people severely affected by climate change in Samoa, Solomon Islands and the Philippines as well as those having successfully migrated to New Zealand. The findings will inform policy-makers in different geographical contexts and at various administrative levels on how to develop anticipatory governance regimes for managing migration flows resulting from rapidly accelerating climate change.

Climate-Induced Migration: Global Scope, Regional Impacts and National Policy Frameworks

Funded by the Worldwide Universities Network (WUN), a consortium of WUN academics and non-WUN partners will provide holistic interdisciplinary expertise on the topic of climate-induced migration which is rapidly emerging as a major global challenge. The research consortium on Climate-Induced Migration: Global Scope, Regional Impacts and National Policy Frameworks will contribute to a better understanding of when, where, how and at what scale climate-induced migration takes place in different world regions. It will do so through a structured analysis of existing studies on this phenomenon, a systematic stock-taking of available research expertise across WUN members, and a global analysis of policy and legal frameworks pertaining to climate-induced migration.

The findings are expected to help inform policy measures in the field of international and internal migration and improve legal frameworks at the national and international level for the protection of so-called climate migrants.