Hello, everyone.

This is Mariam Traore Chazalnoel, I'm a Senior Policy Officer at the International Organization for Migration IOM.

I'm here to speak today about the article that I wrote with my colleague Katy Barwise, for the Anna Lindh intercultural trends report. 

So essentially we were looking at the interaction between environment, climate change, and migration, using the data that the Anna Lindh foundation provided us.

So first of all, it's important to understand that many people are migrating in the Mediterranean regions, directly or indirectly because of climate impacts. 

It happens  in the African countries around the Mediterranean, but also the European countries, so this is a reality that everyone leaves from.

 So looking at the report, we noticed 3 important data points that we think are important for policy making. 

So first of all, the majority, the vast majority of people, regardless of their age, regardless of their education level, regardless of where they live around the Mediterranean,they indicate that they have a very strong interest in climate impacts. 

They want to know more about this topic and they want to hear more news. They want to understand better. So it looks like climate change is an issue that transcends differences and can bring people together, since everyone agrees that it's an important topic that needs to be tackled and discussed.

Then the second point that we found interesting is related to intention, intentions to migrate. So, again, on both sides of the Mediterranean, the majority of people say that they would just rather live where they are , would rather have  just a good life at home, and the proportion of people who want to stay at home is higher in the countries on the southern shore than the European countries. 

Having said that, quite a number of people do say that they would be happy to migrate to another country, and the majority of these people say that they would migrate to Europe as a first choice. So what does this mean in terms of policy making. 

It means that, first and foremost we need to work to allow people to stay where they are because the majority of people do not want to migrate, they want to stay in their countries of origin. And in terms of climate impacts that means doing climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts so that people have access to secure livelihoods been in safe environment, and they can remain where they are. But in terms of facilitating migration. 

Now we should ask ourselves the question: if people have to migrate because of climate impacts? or if they cannot return to specific regions because of climate impacts? From a European perspective, does this mean that we need to look at regular migration pathways, things like visas or special status to provide a safe haven to those who are not able to remain where they are because of climate impacts. 

And then the fourth and last point that we found interesting from the study is that again from both sides of the Mediterranean, the vast majority of people think that a very general country would gain from closer cooperation on environmental sustainability. So it looks like climate change or normative sustainability are issues that represent a common ground for people on both sides of the Mediterranean, and they also believe that the region would benefit from closer cooperation in that regard. 

So thank you very much for your attention and I wish you all a great day.