The Tribune

By FELICITY DARVILLE

CLIMATE change scientist Dr Adelle Thomas is making history and taking great strides to do her part to help mitigate against the impact of climate change in The Bahamas and the world. Her work has been instrumental in helping to formulate policies that will drive global changes to help quell the climate change crisis.

She made history for The Bahamas by becoming the first English-speaking Caribbean Scientist and first female Caribbean Scientist to be elected to the Bureau of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). She was elected as vice chair of IPCC’s Working Group II during its 59th Session held in Nairobi, Kenya, on July 28, 2023. She will hold this position for the next five to seven years. The IPCC, a United Nations body, plays a crucial role in assessing the science behind climate change, evaluating its impacts and future risks, and providing essential insights into adaptation and mitigation options. IPCC’s work feeds straight into the United Nations’ Climate Change Conference of Parties (COP).

The 28th session of the Conference of Parties to the UNFCCC (COP28), hosted by the UAE, opens at Expo City, Dubai on 30 November 2023. Finance is a key component of discussions at this year’s conference, which is significant for The Bahamas. Prime Minister Philip E Davis has already passionately addressed COP in the past, and his campaign to gain funding for The Bahamas and other Small Island Developing States (SIDS) from larger countries, which are the main contributors to global gas emissions and other pollutants.

Adelle has focused her entire career on research on climate change in order to help provide the necessary information for countries like The Bahamas to have the backing they need to mitigate climate change.

Our lives depend on it. Climate change has resulted in a global warming of planet Earth that is having devastating effects on the environment and on billions of people around the world. Rising sea levels, declining corals and marine life, increasing storms and other impacts are being felt all around the world. SIDS are especially at risk, and The Bahamas remains in the top ten most vulnerable countries in the world.

SIDS have been pushing to see rising global temperatures capped at 1.5 degrees. For years, the “1.5 to Stay Alive” Campaign has sought to bring to bear the importance of major countries doing all they can to decrease emissions and pollution.

“In the global discourse, there’s sort of this feeling that 1.5 is lost and that we are just going to blow through 1.5 and go up to 2 degrees,” Adelle told me.

“But what we as SIDS are really doing is pushing that 1.5 to Stay Alive message. 1.5 is really a critical threshold of warming, beyond which, small islands may not be able to survive in the long term. So now is the time for really robust climate action - for mitigation by the big countries that are emitting so much fossil fuels to curb emissions and actually to stop emissions. So COP 28 is going to be a critical time to show us where we are at and who is actually serious about climate change.”

Climate change for The Bahamas threatens our very existence, Adelle pointed out.

“We are a series of low-lying islands,” she said.

“When you think about sea level rise and the intensity of hurricanes, climate change could result in us not even being on the map. So, it’s something incredibly serious for us to take into account.”

Adelle has her finger on the pulse of climate change as a distinguished Senior Scientist at Climate Analytics and a Senior Fellow at the Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience Research Centre of the University of The Bahamas (UB). Her work with UB students is helping to provide vital scientific information to help The Bahamas understand where we really are and what needs to be done to mitigate climate change in The Bahamas.

“The Bahamas, even though we are one of the most vulnerable countries for climate change, the research on climate change in The Bahamas is lacking,” she admitted.

“We need much more research on what’s happening to us now, what could happen in the future, and then how we can deal with these impacts. And that is why we started the Climate Change Research Centre at the University of The Bahamas to provide an impetus for this research and to bring young scholars and young people into climate change research. In order to deal with the impacts of climate change, we really need that evidence as to what will work, and what is out there.”

Adelle has put in years of valuable work that led to her grabbing the attention of climate experts around the world. As the vice chair of IPCC’s Working Group II, she helped to lead the preparation of vital reports that will be reviewed at COP 28, where decisions will be made on the future of climate change. She comes with a wealth of experience and education.

Her educational journey began at Xavier’s School for her primary education. She then attended St Augustine’s College (SAC). The SAC community, she said, instilled a mentality in her and her schoolmates that underpins her success today.

“SAC instilled in us from a young age that we had high potential that we were expected to live up to and achieve great things,” she said.

Achieve great things she did. Adelle went on to attend Macalester College, where she earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering Science. She then earned another Bachelor’s Degree, this time in Civil Engineering from the University of Minnesota. This intelligent, determined and passionate Bahamian then started to carve out her niche of focus. She attended Rutgers University where she earned her Master’s, then her PhD in Geography.

As a woman, her research has also led her to investigate the impact of climate change on women: “On one hand, women on a global scale are vulnerable to climate change impacts and are experiencing those impacts more acutely. But on the other hand, we are seeing women take a leadership role in climate change. We are seeing more women in leadership roles on a national scale. In The Bahamas, we see women leading climate change issues in places like the Department of Environmental Planning and Protection, and the Office of the Prime Minister. We see women’s leadership in climate action at the international scale, and at the COPs. We see more women leading delegations from different countries that are speaking up and that are going to say, ‘these are the ways we address climate change as it relates to gender’. Even in the scientific arena which is where I mostly stand, we are seeing more and more women leaders in science that are breaking into that male club and are showing the value that women bring to climate solutions.”

In addition to her passion for the environment and her country, Adelle is a wife and committed mother of one. She is working for a better world for her child and for future generations, so that they would enjoy the beauty of the environment and witness the flora and fauna that not only amazes us, but sustains us as human beings.