Opha Pauline Dube

Opha Pauline Dube or Pauline Dube (born 1960) is a Botswanan environmental scientist and Associate Professor in the Department of Environmental Science at the University of Botswana. She co-authored the IPCC's Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C. She is one of fifteen scientists creating the 2023 Global Sustainable Development Report for the United Nations.

Education[]

Dube was awarded her MPhil in Applied Remote Sensing at the Cranfield Institute of Technology in the UK in 1989.^[1] She graduated with a PhD from the University of Queensland in 2000.^[2] She gained her doctorate due to a collaboration between the University of Botswana and the University of Queensland arranged by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation. The work involved investigating whether remote sensing-based methods used on Australian ranges could be applied to monitor land degradation in Botswana.^[2]

Career and research[]

Dube is an Associate Professor in the Department of Environmental Science at the University of Botswana.^[1][2] Her research and teaching focuses on the social and biophysical aspects of global environmental change.^[2] In 2012, she held a research fellowship at the Australian National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility (NCCARF) at Griffith University and had a similar position at the Environmental Change Institute at the University of Oxford in 2018.^[2]

Dube was Co-Vice Chair of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP) between 2010 and 2015^[3] and the Deputy Chair of Botswana National Climate Change Committee between 2017 and 2019.^[4] Dube is currently serving as the Co-Chair of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Climate Research for Development in Africa (CR4D)-UNECA^[4] and the Vice Chair of the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) Scientific Advisory Panel.^[5] She is also one of the Editors-in-Chief of the Elsevier Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability academic journal^[6] and an associate editor of the CSIRO Rangeland Journal.^[7] In 2019, Dube was listed in the top 100 of "The World's Most Influential People in Climate Policy"^[8] and in October 2020, she was appointed by the UN Secretary General to be one of fifteen scientists creating the 2023 Global Sustainable Development Report for the United Nations.^[9]

Dube has served as part of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Working Group II since the Third Assessment Report.^[4] This group "assesses the vulnerability of socio-economic and natural systems to climate change, negative and positive consequences of climate change and options for adapting to it."^[10] She has contributed to the IPCC's Third,^[11] Fourth^[12] and Fifth^[13] Assessment Reports, acting as both an author and a review editor. Her work on the Climate Change 2007: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability (AR4 WG2) report, as part of the Fourth Assessment Report, led to Dube being awarded an International Nobel Peace Prize Certificate in 2007.^[14] She was also coordinating lead author for two of the IPCC's Special Reports: Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation (SREX) ^[15] and Global Warming of 1.5 ºC (SR15).^[16] Dube is currently working as a review editor for the upcoming IPCC Sixth Assessment Report, on the chapter titled "Food, fibre, and other ecosystem products."^[17]

Awards and honours[]

• 2007: Co-recipient of the International Nobel Peace Prize Certification^[14]
• 2018: "International Alumni of the Year" in the University of Queensland’s annual Alumni Awards^[2]
• 2019: Listed in the top 100 "World's Most Influential People in Climate Policy"^[8]

Selected publications[]

• Allen, M.R., O.P. Dube, W. Solecki, F. Aragón-Durand, W. Cramer, S. Humphreys, M. Kainuma, J. Kala, N. Mahowald, Y. Mulugetta, R. Perez, M.Wairiu, and K. Zickfeld, 2018. Framing and Context. In: Global Warming of 1.5°C. An IPCC Special Report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emission pathways, in the context of strengthening the global response to the threat of climate change, sustainable development, and efforts to eradicate poverty [Masson-Delmotte, V. et al. (eds.)]. In Press.
• Maru, Y.T., M.S. Smith, A. Sparrow, P.F. Pinho, O.P. Dube, 2014. A linked vulnerability and resilience framework for adaptation pathways in remote disadvantaged communities. Global Environmental Change, 28, 337–350. doi:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2013.12.007
• Dube, O.P., 2009. Linking fire and climate: interactions with land use, vegetation, and soil. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 1 (2), 161-169. doi.org/10.1016/j.cosust.2009.10.008
• Fischlin, A., G.F. Midgley, J.T. Price, R. Leemans, B. Gopal, C. Turley, M.D.A. Rounsevell, O.P. Dube, J. Tarazona, A.A. Velichko, 2007. Ecosystems, their properties, goods, and services. In: Climate Change 2007: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. [Parry, M.L. et al. eds.]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 211-272.

References[]