Biography
François Gemenne is a professor at HEC Paris, where he is the academic director of the Master in Sustainability and Social Innovation. A specialist of environmental geopolitics and migration governance, he is also a FNRS senior research associate at the University of Liège (Belgium), where he heads the Hugo Observatory, a research lab on environmental changes and migration. He is also the co-director of the Observatory on Defence and Climate of the French Ministry of Defence, jointly with Julia Tasse at IRIS. He is a lead author for the 6th Assessment Report of the IPCC and lectures on climate change and migration policies in different universities, including Sciences Po and Sorbonne University in Paris.
His research deals mostly with environmental and migration governance. He has worked in particular on populations displaced by environmental changes and the policies of adaptation to climate change, as well as on asylum and migration policies.
He is currently coordinating two important European research projects: MAGYC, on migration governance and asylum crises, as well as HABITABLE, on migration induced by climate change. He also coordinated the DEVAST project, one of the first international projects to examine the social and political consequences of the Fukushima disaster. Furthermore, he has been involved in a large number of international research projects on migration and environmental changes, including EACH-FOR, HELIX, EDGE, MISTY and MECLEP, for which he was the global research coordinator.
In 2015, he was the recipient of a Fulbright scholarship to pursue research at Princeton University. He has also been a guest professor at the University of Buenos Aires and the University of Economics in Bratislava, and has spent research stays at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, the University of the South Pacific in Suva (Fiji) and the Australian National University in Canberra.
He holds a joint doctorate in political science from Sciences Po Paris and the University of Liege (Belgium). He also holds a Master’s degree in Development, Environment and Societies from the University of Louvain, as well as a Master of Research in Political Science from the London School of Economics, where he also taught. In 2008, he was awarded a post-doctoral scholarship from the AXA Research Fund. He has published in leading journals, including Science and Global Environmental Change, and has authored several books, amongst which ‘The Anthropocene and the Global Environmental Crisis’ (edited with C. Hamilton and C. Bonneuil, Routledge 2015) the Atlas of Environmental Migration (with D. Ionesco et D. Mokhnacheva, Routledge 2016) or Handbook of Environmental Displacement and Migration (edited with R. McLeman, Routledge 2018).
He is also the director of the Politics of the Earth series at Presses de Sciences Po, a leading French academic publisher, and the President of the Board of the NGO Climate Voices, which seeks to connect youth from the global North and the global South around climate issues. Recently, he was appointed as President of the scientific council of Fondation pour la Nature et l’Homme, a major environmental NGO in France.
Scientific articles
Global Environmental Change, Forthcoming, vol. 90, n° 102953, (in coll. with H. Sterly, M. Borderon, P. Sakdapolrak, N. Adger, A. Ayanlade, A. Bah, J. Blocher, S. Blondin, ET AL.)
Frontiers in Climate, 2023, vol. 5, n° 123679, (in coll. with K. van der Geest, A. de Sherbinin, K. Warner)
Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, May 2023, vol. 10, n° 250, (in coll. with D. Jolivet, S. Fransen, W. N. Adger, A. Fábos, M. Abu, ET AL.)
Hommes & Migrations, 2022, vol. 2, n° 1337, pp 180-184, (in coll. with H. THIOLLET)
Current Opinion in Nephrology & Hypertension, November 2021, vol. 30, n° 6, pp 525-530, (in coll. with P. Delanaye, C. Mariat, E. Cavalier, R. J. Glassock, H. Pottel)
Climatic Change, Mars 2021, vol. 165, n° 24, (in coll. with R. McLeman, D. Wrathall, E. Gilmore, P. Thornton, H. Adams)
Forced Migration Review, 2020, vol. 63, pp 32-35, (in coll. with C. ZICKGRAF, A. DEPOUX, L. PETTINOTTI, A. CAVICCHIOLI, S. ROSENGAERTNER)
Climatic Change, May 2020, vol. 160, pp 123-141, (in coll. with F. De Longueville, P. Ozer, S. Henry, O. Mertz, J. Ø. Nielsen)
Environmental Research Letters, September 2020, vol. 15, n° 10, pp 101002, (in coll. with A. Depoux)
Revue internationale de géologie, de géographie et d'écologie tropicales, 2020, vol. 44, n° 4, pp 623-629,
Books
Fayard, Paris
Presses de Sciences Po (in coll. with N. REGAUD, B. ALEX )
Fayard, Paris
Presses de Sciences Po (in coll. with A. RANKOVIC, T. ANSART, B. MARTIN, P. MITRANO, A. RIO )
Armand Colin
Centre d'Action Laïque (in coll. with P. VERBEEREN )
Routledge, London (in coll. with R. MCLEMAN )
Chapters in edited books
Research Handbook On The Institutions Of Global Migration Governance, A. Pécoud, H. Thiollet, Edward Elgar Publishing, 2 , 186-195
Climate Change 2022 – Impacts, Adaptation And Vulnerability, H.-O. Pörtner, D.C. Roberts, M. Tignor, E.S. Poloczanska, K. Mintenbeck, A. Alegría, M. Craig, S. Langsdorf, S. Löschke, V. Möller, A. Okem, B. Rama, Cambridge University Press, 1171-1274
Research Handbook On Communicating Climate Change, D. C. Holmes, L. M. Richardson, Edward Elgar Publishing, 272-278
Standing Up For A Sustainable World, C. Henry, J. Rockström, N. Stern, Edward Elgar Publishing, 396-400
Atlas Des Droits De L'Homme, Catherine Wihtol de Wenden, Alexandre Nicolas, Autrement, 56-57
Scientific articles
Global Environmental Change, Forthcoming, vol. 90, n° 102953, (in coll. with H. Sterly, M. Borderon, P. Sakdapolrak, N. Adger, A. Ayanlade, A. Bah, J. Blocher, S. Blondin, ET AL.)
Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, May 2023, vol. 10, n° 250, (in coll. with D. Jolivet, S. Fransen, W. N. Adger, A. Fábos, M. Abu, ET AL.)
Frontiers in Climate, 2023, vol. 5, n° 123679, (in coll. with K. van der Geest, A. de Sherbinin, K. Warner)
Hommes & Migrations, 2022, vol. 2, n° 1337, pp 180-184, (in coll. with H. THIOLLET)
Books
Fayard, Paris
Presses de Sciences Po (in coll. with N. REGAUD, B. ALEX )
Fayard, Paris
Presses de Sciences Po (in coll. with A. RANKOVIC, T. ANSART, B. MARTIN, P. MITRANO, A. RIO )
Chapters in edited books
Research Handbook On The Institutions Of Global Migration Governance, A. Pécoud, H. Thiollet, Edward Elgar Publishing, 2 , 186-195
Climate Change 2022 – Impacts, Adaptation And Vulnerability, H.-O. Pörtner, D.C. Roberts, M. Tignor, E.S. Poloczanska, K. Mintenbeck, A. Alegría, M. Craig, S. Langsdorf, S. Löschke, V. Möller, A. Okem, B. Rama, Cambridge University Press, 1171-1274
Research Handbook On Communicating Climate Change, D. C. Holmes, L. M. Richardson, Edward Elgar Publishing, 272-278
Standing Up For A Sustainable World, C. Henry, J. Rockström, N. Stern, Edward Elgar Publishing, 396-400
Academic appointments
Academic Responsibilities at HEC
- 2023- Professor (Education Track), Economics and Decision Science HEC Paris
- 2023- Member of GREGHEC, the joint research laboratory CNRS-HEC Paris, GREGHEC HEC Paris
External Academic Responsibilities
- 2022- Visiting professor Bar-Ilan University
Scientific Activities
Membership in Academic or Professional Organisation
- American Political Science Association (APSA), Association Francaise de Science Politique (AFSP), International Studies Association (ISA Environmental Sciences section), International Association for the Study of Forced Migration (IASFM), American Association of Geographers (AAG)
Editorial activities
Awards & honors
- 2023 ACRONYM (Advancing Cooperation on Asylum and Migration) European Commission, Horizon Europe programme
- 2022 ILERI Prize for the best essay in geopolitics for Geopolitique du Climat
- 2021 CHILDRN (Climate Change Diplomacy, Leadership and Resilience)
- 2020 HABITABLE (Linking Climate change, Habitability and Social Tipping Points: Scenarios for Climate Migration)
- 2018 MAGYC (Migration Governance and Asylum Crises)