CLIMB

Climate change is reshaping who moves, where and why, yet the data needed to understand these movements remain patchy. CLIMB addresses this gap by leveraging multi-level big data: from satellite imagery to mobile phone records and social media, among other digital traces. We combine these new sources with traditional surveys and official statistics.

This holistic, data-driven approach allows us to better understand the multi-stage process of human migration, from initial displacement to onward or return migration, and to conduct predictive analyses of climate-induced migration.

As climate risks are more likely to affect internal mobility, CLIMB adopts a bottom-up approach: instead of aiming for a global study, it collects timely and granular data on specific cases where the climate–migration nexus is most apparent. The first case study focuses on Senegal, where more frequent extreme weather events are expected in the coming decades. Deteriorating climate conditions, coupled with poverty, inequality and conflict, are likely to displace millions of people.