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Lecture at the German-Maghreb Society e.V. (March 30 2022): Climate Change Adaption Through Migration – Perspectives from the Maghreb States

Meret Jacob-Lakrimdi, Ph.D. student of the project Extractivism.de, gave a lecture titled “Climate Change Adaption Through Migration – Perspectives from the Maghreb states” at the Volkshochschule Bonn on March 30, 2022, as part of the lecture series “Maghreb in Focus,” organized by the German-Maghreb Foundation (Deutsch-Maghrebinische Gesellschaft e.V.).

Jacob-Lakrimdi began by addressing environmental migration, which has been receiving increased attention since the mid-2000s due to the global debate on climate change. Afterward, she tackled the environmental migration complexity in the Mediterranean region based on several examples. As a result, three different levels became apparent: local adaptation strategies in the Tunisian region of El Faouar, national strategies of the Moroccan government, and global impacts of migration flows in the Libyancase.

Finally, Jacob-Lakrimdi demonstrated the relevance of discussions concerning adaptation strategies to climate change as part of the project Extractivism.de. She stressed how, in the Global North, adaptation strategies are conceived within an upcoming energy transition. This often ignores the dark sides of these technologies in countries of the Global South, which are necessary for a decarbonisation of the economy. At the same time, national adaptation strategies, including Morocco’s, show that by adapting to a global demand for more solar power, for example, favorable climate conditions in desert regions can be used to sustain the economic and social model of extractivism. This way, she councluded that increasing decarbonization of the economy in the Global North may lead to an expansion of resource extraction and export in the Maghreb and the Global South in general.