Dr Sarah Louise NASH (United Kingdom)

Sarah is a political scientist and an international expert on the politics of climate change and human mobilities.

PhD in Political Science

Current position: Postdoctoral Researcher in the Research Lab Democracy and Society in Transition at the University of Continuing Education Krems, Austria

Research focus: climate change politics and policy, climate change and human mobility

From 2022-2022 she held a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship of the European Commission for the project CLIMACY (Climate Diplomacy and Uneven Policy Responses on Climate Change and Human Mobilities). Her first book ’Negotiating Migration in the Context of Climate Change. International Policy and Discourse’ was published in 2019 with Bristol University Press.

During her research stay in Germany, she established contact with experts in her academic field. The following year she received a scholarship from the German Academic Exchange Service for her PhD at the University of Hamburg, where she defended her thesis on the topic of international policymaking around the climate change and migration nexus in January 2017.

2022            Marie Sklodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship of the European Commission
2016-2017 Mercator-IPC Fellow at Istanbul Policy Center (IPC), Sabanci University, Turkey
2016            Visiting Scholar at the Institute for Hazard, Risk and Resilience, Durham University, UK


CV as submitted for the Green Talents award (2012):

University of Glasgow, Scotland

Research focus: climate-induced migration

A political scientist, Sarah Louise Nash is exploring the human consequences of climate change, particularly climate-induced migration, which threatens to become one of the defining humanitarian, development and political issues of the next century.

Currently a Master’s candidate in Human Rights and International Politics at the University of Glasgow, Scotland, Sarah Louise Nash is working at the crossroads of human rights, climate change and population displacement. Her current project focuses on Somalia, where people are being displaced for a wide variety of reasons. “This provides an example which is theoretically very difficult to conceptualise,” says Nash, “and which highlights the practical difficulties faced by the international community in dealing with climate-induced displacement.”

While the social consequences of climate change are not yet clearly understood, Nash points out the very real political ramifications of environmental migration across borders. “The countries most affected by climate change displacement will increasingly look to other countries for support and perhaps also relocation possibilities,” she says. “Addressing the issue will require international collaboration and new global humanitarian policies and practices.” Nash also believes that climate-induced displacement must be included in any discussions on sustainable development. “Any solution for sustainable development and green growth must consider those who have been displaced because of climate change,” she says.

One of the youngest researchers to take part in the 2012 Green Talents competition, Nash impressed the jury with her long-term perspective and dedication to this complex and challenging issue.