Adapting to Climate Change in Small Island Developing States

This presentation will introduce (a) the concept of small island developing states (SIDS) and explain why they are disproportionately vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, (b) what the science says about the climate impacts that SIDS face now and will face in the future, and (c) some of the challenges SIDS face in adapting to the impacts of climate change. 

The Wells Reserve operates in accordance with orders from the Governor of Maine and instructions from the Maine Center for Disease Control. Reserve leadership will monitor, evaluate, and adapt as needed to ensure all programs operate safely and effectively.

Please wear a mask if you are not vaccinated and/or feel safer being masked in an indoor group setting.

Support for the Wells Reserve's Ted Exford Climate Stewards lecture series is provided by Dave & Loretta (Exford) Hoglund.

About the Presenter

Dr. Stacy-ann Robinson is Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies at Colby College. She primarily teaches International Environmental Policy and Global Climate Policy, and her pedagogy emphasizes team- and problem-based approaches. Her scholarship investigates the human, social and policy dimensions of climate change adaptation in small island developing states, with a special focus on adaptation finance, an area in which she is a Certified Expert.

Dr. Robinson is a Contributing Author to Chapter 15 (Small Islands) of Working Group II’s contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, due to be finalized in 2021. Her work has appeared in Nature, Nature Climate Change, Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews (WIREs): Climate Change, Climate Policy, and other leading journals. 

Prior to Colby, Dr. Robinson was a Voss Postdoctoral Research Associate in Environment and Society at Brown University. And before that, the Fox-Zucker Fellow (Environmental Stewardship and Multilevel Governance) at Yale University where she researched climate resilience and transformation in the Caribbean.

Dr. Robinson earned her PhD in Global Environmental Change from The Australian National University, and was an Australia Awards Scholar and Leadership Awardee. She also holds a BS in International Relations and Political Science from the University of the West Indies, Mona, postgraduate qualifications in Environmental Diplomacy, and Oceans Law and Policy, and an MS in International Development with a specialization in Environment and Development from the University of Manchester where she was a Chevening Scholar.

Outside of academia, Dr. Robinson has 15 years’ experience in the government, non-profit and private sectors, including time spent representing the Government of Jamaica in the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) of the United Nations General Assembly and the International Seabed Authority.