Debra C. Roberts is a South African government worker and one of the six co-chairs of the

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is an intergovernmental body of the United Nations. Its job is to advance scientific knowledge about climate change caused by human activities. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) a ...

. She was elected co-chair of Working Group II for the sixth assessment in 2015. She is head of the Sustainable and Resilient City Initiatives Unit in eThekwini Municipality (

Durban Durban ( ) ( zu, eThekwini, from meaning 'the port' also called zu, eZibubulungwini for the mountain range that terminates in the area), nicknamed ''Durbs'',Ishani ChettyCity nicknames in SA and across the worldArticle on ''news24.com'' from ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

Education and career

Roberts has a PhD in Urban

Biogeography Biogeography is the study of the distribution of species and ecosystems in geographic space and through geological time. Organisms and biological communities often vary in a regular fashion along geographic gradients of latitude, elevation, ...

at the (then)

University of Natal The University of Natal was a university in the former South African province Natal which later became KwaZulu-Natal. The University of Natal no longer exists as a distinct legal entity, as it was incorporated into the University of KwaZulu-N ...

, South Africa. After working as a post-doctoral researcher, she joined local government in 1994. She established the Environmental Planning and Climate Protection Department of eThekwini Municipality (Durban, South Africa) which she led from 1994 to 2016. In 2016 she was appointed to establish the Sustainable and Resilient City Initiatives Unit in Durban and is the city’s first Chief Resilience Officer.

IPCC work

She was a lead author of Chapter 8 (Urban Areas) of Working Group II of the

IPCC Fifth Assessment Report The Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the fifth in a series of such reports and was completed in 2014.IPCC (2014The IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) leaflet/ref> As h ...

and was elected as Co-Chair of Working Group II for the IPCC’s sixth assessment cycle in 2015. She was also a lead author of the IPCC

Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C The Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C (SR15) was published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on 8 October 2018. The report, approved in Incheon, South Korea, includes over 6,000 scientific references, and was prep ...

Recognition

In 2014, the AfriCAN Climate Consortium gave Roberts their AfriCAN Climate Research Award. She was the 2016 Barbara Ward Lecturer of the

International Institute for Environment and Development International is an adjective (also used as a noun) meaning "between nations". International may also refer to: Music Albums * ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011 * ''International'' (New Order album), 2002 * ''International'' (The T ...

. She is an honorary professor of the

University of KwaZulu-Natal The University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) is a university with five campuses in the province of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. It was formed on 1 January 2004 after the merger between the University of Natal and the University of Durban-Westville. ...

, and was listed in 2019 by public servant organization Apolitical as one of the 100 most influential people in climate change in the world.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Roberts, Debra Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Biogeographers South African climatologists Women climatologists 21st-century South African women scientists University of Natal alumni Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change lead authors