Professor Opha Pauline Dube

“It’s something I do out of passion and out of my own drive, and I realise when you do these things you create an environment that leads to the growth of education and hence contributing towards a knowledge economy.”

Professor Opha Pauline Dube is an environmental change scientist and an Associate Professor in the Department of Environmental Science at the University of Botswana.

She is recognised as a leader in global environmental change including climate change research internationally and completed her PhD in Geographical Science at The University of Queensland (UQ).

She served as one of the Vice Chairs of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP) for five years where she introduced the Global Environmental Change and Least Developed Countries synthesis and capacity building work.

Dube is the Founder and Chair of the Botswana Global Environmental Change Committee (BGCC) at the University of Botswana that laid a foundation for building capacity in climate change research.

In her role as Vice Chair of the Botswana Government National Climate Change Committee (NCCC), Dube facilitates introduction of climate change into Botswana’s development agenda.

She coordinated the Southern African Fire Network (SAFnet) for seven years and her work on wild fires contributed to the Botswana National Fire Strategy and led to the development of a regional Southern African Development Community (SADC) trans-boundary fire protocol.

Dube, who is Co-Editor-in-Chief of environmental science journal Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, has a focus on global environmental change in the context of the Anthropocene.

She is a Co-Coordinating Lead Author in the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) special report on “the impacts of global warming of 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emission pathways, in the context of strengthening the global response to the threat of climate change, sustainable development, and efforts to eradicate poverty.”

Dube has received many accolades for her research, including a Nobel Peace Prize Certificate awarded in 2007 as part of the IPCC authorship for significant contribution to the scientific understanding of climate change and its implications for society.

Awards

International Alumnus of the Year
2018
Image of Professor Opha Pauline Dube

Qualifications

Doctor of Philosophy (Geographical Sciences and Planning)
2000