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The 2009 United Nations University and Munich Re Foundation (UNU/MRF) Summer Academy on Social Vulnerability took place from 26 July to 1 August in Hohenkammer, Germany. More than 20 Ph.D. researchers and experts from some seventeen countries convened to address the potential of climate change-triggered tipping points that could lead to humanitarian crises.

The UNU/MRF Summer Academy intended to prepare an assessment plan for understanding the nature of tipping points of climate change as they are related to forced migration and humanitarian crises, the potential vulnerability and impacts (including costing), and the range and effectiveness of adaptation strategies and measures. Summer Academy participants produced a scoping paper to submit to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) prior to the meeting of the 2009 Conference of Parties (COP 15) to the United Nations Climate Change Conference, and to inform the IPCC’s fifth report (due in 2012).

The scoping paper argues that a review and assessment of complex social and biophysical processes is necessary to identify “hot systems”. The hot systems approach focuses research on the relationship within and between biophysical and social processes to understand the manner in which a combination of events might result in a humanitarian crisis. This will enhance decision making and allow for more effective interventions.

The Summer Academy on Social Vulnerability was established by the Munich Re Foundation (and the UNU Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS). The long-term aim is to contribute in providing people with knowledge that they can use to reduce their vulnerability to environmental risks and improve their quality of life. The academy provides intensive interaction between Ph.D. candidates, leading international experts and scholars in social vulnerability, as well as senior scientists from the UNU and MRF. It strives to overcome the limits of approaching social vulnerability from the confines of one academic discipline by stressing an interdisciplinary approach.