Debra Roberts

Professor Debra Roberts heads the Sustainable and Resilient City Initiatives function in eThekwini Municipality (Durban, South Africa). Over her 30 years in local government, she has been responsible for a diverse range of portfolios, including sustainable development, environmental management, biodiversity planning and management, climate change adaptation, and resilience. In 2015 Prof. Roberts was elected as Co-Chair of Working Group II (Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for the sixth assessment cycle (2015-2023). She is an Honorary Professor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in the School of Life Sciences and has been an advisor to the Global Commission on Adaptation, United Cities and Local Governments, and the United Nations Secretary General’s 2019 Climate Summit. In 2019 she was included in a list of the World’s 100 Most Influential People in Climate Policy and in 2022 she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the University of Twente for her local and international climate change work.