Professor Debra Roberts. Picture: Supplied
Cape Town – Climate change champion Professor Debra Roberts is set to receive an honorary degree at Rhodes University’s graduation ceremony on Friday.
The university said it is to confer Roberts with a degree of doctor of laws (LLD) (honoris causa).
Roberts is a a global authority on urban biodiversity, climate change, and resilience issues that maintains an H-index of over 40, despite being a full-time local government practitioner who has won numerous awards for her work in Durban.
She was a climate change negotiator for South Africa under the United Nations Framework on Climate Change until 2015, drawing from her local experiences in eThekwini Metro in her global policy work.
Roberts said: “It is a tremendous honour to receive this recognition from Rhodes University. Not only for myself, but also for all the practitioner-scientists working in the world’s cities using science every day to make a difference in people’s lives and helping to create a more just and sustainable planet.”
The university’s vice-chancellor Professor Sizwe Mabizela highlighted Roberts’s immense national and international contributions to climate change issues in cities as deserving of an honorary doctorate.
“She is recognised and celebrated as a global authority on urban ecosystems-based adaptations. I am delighted that Rhodes University’s community has seen it fit to honour her many and significant contributions,” said Mabizela.
Among her honours, Roberts also received an honorary professorship at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, her alma mater, and honorary doctorates from the University of Twente in the Netherlands and UCT.
Cape Times