Dr Adelle Thomas
Senior Scientist, Loss and Damage Lead
Climate Science and Impacts
adelle.thomas@climateanalytics.org
Adelle is a Senior Scientist at Climate Analytics and our Loss and Damage Lead. Her areas of research focus on adaptation, limits to adaptation, and loss and damage in the developing world, with a particular focus on small island developing states. Adelle is also a Senior Fellow at the Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience Research Centre at the University of The Bahamas.
A human-environment geographer, Adelle has over 16 years of practice in the intersections between climate action and development. Her research and policy experience have centred on conceptualising, assessing and responding to loss and damage at international, national and sub-national scales; assessing constraints and limits to adaptation; and investigating how climate change intersects with other development challenges. She has extensive experience in providing scientific advice at the climate-policy interface, including in the UNFCCC and in national and sub-national policy processes.
Adelle has served as a Lead Author for the IPCC Special Report on 1.5°C, Sixth Assessment Report Working Group II and Sixth Assessment Synthesis Report. She was also a Contributing Author and Chapter Scientist for the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report Working Group II. Adelle serves as a member of several groups, including the UNFCCC Technical Expert Group on Comprehensive Risk Management; the Liaison Committee of the Regional Focal Point for Latin America and the Caribbean of the International Science Council; and the Regional Advisory Committee for the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund in the Caribbean. She has previously served as a member of the UNFCCC Technology Executive Committee and the National Sustainable Development Goals Committee for the Bahamas.
Adelle has authored an array of academic publications and has provided scientific services to organisations including the Global Environment Facility, Inter-American Development Bank, International Maritime Organisation, GIZ and national institutions in the USA and Caribbean. Adelle obtained a PhD and MS in Geography from Rutgers University, a BS in Civil Engineering from University of Minnesota and and BA in Engineering Science from Macalester College.
A list of Adelle’s publications can be found here.
Publications
- Serdeczny, O., Andrijevic, M., Fyson, C., Lissner, T., Menke, I., Schleussner, C.F., Theokritoff, E., Thomas, A. Climatic risks to adaptive capacity. Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change. 29 (2024)
- Sietsma, A., Theokritoff, E., Biesbroek, R., Villaverde Canosa, I., Thomas, A., Callaghan, M., Minx, J., Ford, J. Machine learning evidence map reveals global differences in adaptation action. One Earth. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2023.12.011
- Theokritoff, E., van Maanen, N., Andrijevic, A., Thomas, T., Lissner, L., Schleussner, C-F. Adaptation constraints in scenarios of socio-economic development. Scientific Reports. (2023) https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-46931-1
- Andrijevic, M., Schleussner, C-F., Cuaresma, J.C., Lissner, T., Muttarak, R., Riahi, K., Theokritoff, E., Thomas, A., van Maanen, N., Byers, E. Towards scenario representation of adaptive capacity for global climate change assessments. Nature Climate Change. August 2023 (2023) https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-023-01725-1
- Theokritoff, Adelle Thomas, Tabea Lissner, Carl-Friedrich Schleussner, E., Thomas, A., Lissner, T., Schleussner, C-F. Interacting adaptation constraints in the Caribbean highlight the importance of sustained adaptation finance. Climate Risk Management. 39 (2023) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crm.2023.100483
- Climate justice and loss and damage: Hurricane Dorian, Haitians and human rights
- Current and pledged adaptation finance scrapes the bottom of the barrel
- What next for the Global Goal on Adaptation?
- A systematic global stocktake of evidence on human adaptation to climate change
- Debt-for-climate swaps for small islands
- Global evidence of constraints and limits to human adaptation
- Loss and damage implications of sea-level rise on Small Island Developing States
- Overcoming gender inequality for climate resilient development
- Loss and damage research for the global stocktake
- Towards a solid science base: loss and damage in the IPCC special reports
- The human imperative of stabilising global climate change at 1.5°C
- Climate Adaptation and Theory of Change: Making it work for you
- 1.5°C Hotspots: Climate Hazards, Vulnerabilities, and Impacts
- Loss and damage costing and financing mechanisms: Caribbean outlook
- Debt for climate swaps: Caribbean outlook
- Management of loss and damage in small island developing states: implications for a 1.5°C or warmer world
- Tropical cyclones: impacts, the link to climate change and adaptation
Comment
US report brings warnings for island nations
The United States is already experiencing impacts of climate change across most sectors and regions and it’s likely to get worse, according to the Fourth National Climate Assessment, published in November 2018.
The authoritative report has been written by 300 expert authors from 13 Federal institutions and other agencies, sets out a grim picture of the impacts of climate change while calling for global efforts in mitigation to reduce the many risks to the US.
