EPC2026 workshop on Climate Demography: Population Dynamics in a Changing ClimateBologna, Italy, 3 June 2026
The workshop on “Climate Demography: Population Dynamics in a Changing Climate”, held on 3 June 2026 as a preconference event at the European Population Conference (EPC) in Bologna, Italy was organized jointly by the newly founded IUSSP Panel on Climate and Environmental Demography and the EAPS Working Group on Climate Demography.
This kick-off meeting brought together around 40 researchers for a focused afternoon of talks and discussion. The event was convened by Raya Muttarak (University of Bologna, Bocconi University), Risto Conte Keivabu (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research), Jasmin Abdel Ghany (Nuffield College/University of Oxford), Tobias Rüttenauer (Goethe University Frankfurt), Emilio Zagheni (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research) and Maria Rubio-Cabañez (Centre d'Estudis Demogràfics Barcelona). Participants included early-career and junior scholars as well as established demographers, geographers, epidemiologists, and climate scientists,, reflecting the multidisciplinary nature of climate demography.
The workshop ran from 13:30–17:00 as part of the European Population Conference pre-programme. After a short welcome and an introduction to the IUSSP Panel and the EAPS Working Group, three invited keynotes set the scene: Alexander De Sherbinin on “Habitability, Climate Justice, and Climate Mobility”; Mary Abed Al Ahad on “Air Pollution and Health”; and Roman Hoffmann on “Populations in the Age of the Climate Crisis.” A coffee break allowed informal networking before a “Meet the Editors” panel featuring Raya Muttarak, Timothy Adair and Alexander De Sherbinin, which offered guidance on publishing in Population and Development Review, Population Health Metrics and Frontiers in Climate. The session closed with an open discussion to plan upcoming activities and collaborations.
Highlights from the keynotes and ensuing discussion showed how rapidly the field is evolving. Alexander De Sherbinin emphasized spatial heterogeneity in climate-driven mobility and the need to link earth-system products with household and migration micro-data. Mary Abed Al Ahad brought new evidence on the demographic impacts of air pollution and discussed pathways linking exposure and morbidity. Roman Hoffmann’s talk framed long-term demographic pressures and the interactions between age structure, health systems and adaptation capacity. Participants engaged actively on compound risks (e.g., heat, pollution, floods), the uneven social distribution of exposures and adaptive capacity, and the need for advanced methods to analyse the impact of interactions and sequences of various climate events.
The meet-the-editors conversation was particularly well received: editors highlighted opportunities for interdisciplinary special issues, transparency in data and code, and clear causal inference in observational research. They also shared their diverse views on cover letters. Across small-group exchanges and the final plenary, attendees proposed concrete next steps: a training workshop on geospatial and longitudinal methods for junior scholars, a shared data repository, and a possible special issue on climate–demography interactions. The lively discussions and diverse perspectives underlined strong enthusiasm to consolidate the climate demography network. If you would like to join activities or follow up on discussion, please contact climatedemography@gmail.com and stay up to date on upcoming events here.
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