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Stacy-ann Robinson

Title

Associate Professor of Environmental Studies

Department

Environmental Studies

Information

Current Courses

CRS Title Sec
ES118 Environment and Society A
ES234 International Environmental Policy A
ES368 Global Climate Policy A

Education

  • Ph.D., Global Environmental Change, The Australian National University

Areas of Expertise

  • Climate change adaptation
  • Small island developing states (SIDS)
  • Adaptation finance
  • United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
  • Climate justice
  • Caribbean

Personal Information

Dr. Stacy-ann Robinson is Associate Professor of Environmental Studies and Dean of Global Engagement 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 (SIDS), with a special focus on climate justice, and on adaptation finance, an area in which she is a Certified Expert.

Dr. Robinson was 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, which was released in February 2022. 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. She was the 2022/2023 Lightning Scholar at Perry World House, the University of Pennsylvania’s hub for global policy engagement.

Dr. Robinson earned her Ph.D. in global environmental change from the Australian National University and was an Australia Awards Scholar and Leadership Awardee. She also holds a B.Sc. 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 M.Sc. 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, nonprofit, 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.

Current Research

  • Climate change adaptation in SIDS
  • Climate adaptation finance
  • Climate change adaptation in Caribbean coastal communities
  • Climate justice for Caribbean SIDS

Publications

*Denotes student co-authors

  • Robinson, S., Roberts, J. T., Weikmans, R., and Falzon, D. 2023, ‘Vulnerability based allocations in loss and damage finance’. Nature Climate Change. Available at this URL.
  • Robinson, S., Douma, A.*, Poore, T.* and Singh, K.* 2023, ‘The role of colonial pasts in shaping climate futures: Adaptive capacity in Georgetown, Guyana’. Habitat International, 139, 102902. Available at this URL.
  • Falzon, D., Shaia, F.*, Roberts, J. T., Hossain, M. F., Robinson, S., Khan, M., and Ciplet, D. 2023, ‘Tactical Opposition: Obstructing Loss and Damage Finance in the United Nations Climate Negotiations’. Global Environmental Politics. Available at this URL.
  • Rahman, M. F., Falzon, D., Robinson, S., Kuhl, L., Westoby, R., Omukuti, J., Schipper, E. L. F., McNamara, K., Resurreccion, B. P., Mfitumukiza, D., and Nadiruzzaman, M. 2023, ‘Locally led adaptation: Promise, pitfalls and possibilities’. Ambio. Available at this URL.
  • Foley, A., Brinklow, L., Chandler, D., Corbett, J., Kelman, I., Kloeck, C., Moncada, S., Mycoo, M., Nunn, P., Pugh, J., Robinson, S., Tandrayen-Ragoobur, V., and Walshe, R. 2023, ‘Understanding “islandness”’. Annals of the American Association of Geographers. Available at this URL.
  • Ciplet, D., Falzon, D.*, Uri, I.*, Robinson, S., Weikmans, R. and Roberts, J. T. 2022, ‘The unequal geographies of climate finance: climate injustice and dependency in the world system’. Political Geography, 99, 102769, 1-12. Available at this URL.
  • Lai, M.*, Robinson, S., Salas, E.*, Thao, W.* and Shorb, A.* 2022, ‘Climate justice for small island developing states: Identifying appropriate international financing mechanisms for loss and damage’. Climate Policy. Available at this URL.
  • Robinson, S., Vega Troncoso, A.*, Roberts, J. T. and Peck, M.* 2022, ‘“We are a people”: Sovereignty and disposability in the context of Puerto Rico’s post-Hurricane Maria experience’. The Geographical Journal. Available at this URL.
  • Robinson, S., Carlson, D.*, Bouton, E.*, Dolan, M.*, Meakem, A.*, Messer, A.* and Roberts, J. T. 2022, ‘The dynamics of institutional arrangements for climate change adaptation in SIDS in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans’. Sustainability Science. Available at this URL.
  • Kalaidjian, E.* and Robinson, S. 2022, ‘Reviewing the nature and pitfalls of multilateral adaptation finance for SIDS’. Climate Risk Management, 36, 100432, 1-16. Available at this URL.
  • Robinson, S. and Butchart, C.* 2022, ‘Planning for climate change in SIDS: Can Dominica’s Climate Resilience and Recovery Plan be a model for transformation in the Caribbean?’ Sustainability, 14(9), 5089. Available at this URL.
  • Robinson, S., Bouton, E.*, Dolan, M.*, Messer, A.*, Meakem, A.*, Lefond, I.* and Roberts, J. T. 2022, ‘A new framework for rapidly assessing national adaptation policies: An application to SIDS in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans’. Regional Environmental Change. Available at this URL.
  • Mycoo, M., Wairiu, M., Campbell, D., Duvat, V., Golbuu, Y., Maharaj, S., Nalau, J., Nunn, P., Pinnegar, J., Warrick, O., Anderson, G., Cruz, F. A., Devenish-Nelson, E., Ebi, K., Loehr, J., Mahon, R., McNaught, R., Parsons, M., Price, J., Robinson, S., Thomas, A. 2022, ‘Small islands’. Chapter 15 in Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. Working Group II’s contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Geneva.
  • Mycoo, M., Robinson, S., Nguyen, C.*, Nisbet, C.* and Tonkel III, R.* 2021, ‘Human adaptation to coastal hazards in Greater Bridgetown, Barbados’. Frontiers in Environmental Science, 9, 155, 1-18. Available at this URL.
  • Carlson, D.*, Robinson, S., Blair, C.* and McDonough, M.* 2021, ‘China’s climate ambition: Revisiting its First Nationally Determined Contribution and centering a just transition to clean energy’. Energy Policy, 155, 112350. Available at this URL.
  • Robinson, S., Khan, M., Roberts, J. T., Weikmans, R. and Ciplet, D. 2021, ‘Financing loss and damage from slow onset events in developing countries’. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 50, 138-148. Available at this URL.
  • Robinson, S., Carlson, D.*, Messer, A.*, Maunus, L.*, Bouton, E.*, and Roberts, J. T. 2021, ‘Climate compatible development in practice’. Development in Practice. Available at this URL.
  • Roberts, J. T., Weikmans, R., Robinson, S., Ciplet, D., Khan, M. and Falzon, D.* 2021, ‘Rebooting a failed promise of climate finance’. Nature Climate Change. Available at this URL.
  • Robinson, S. and Carlson, D.* 2021, ‘A just alternative to litigation: Applying restorative justice to climate-related loss and damage’. Third World Quarterly. Available at this URL.
  • Beauregard, C.*, Carlson, D.*, Robinson, S., Cobb, C.* and Patton, M.* 2021, ‘Climate justice and rights-based litigation in a post-Paris world’. Climate Policy. Available at this URL.
  • Weikmans, R., Roberts, J. T., and Robinson, S. 2020, ‘What counts as climate finance? Define urgently’. Nature, 588(7837), 220. Available at this URL.
  • Robinson, S. 2020, ‘A richness index for baselining climate change adaptations in SIDS’. Environmental and Sustainability Indicators, 8, 100065. Available at this URL.
  • Lincoln Lenderking, H.*, Robinson, S. and Carlson, G. 2020, ‘Climate change and food security in Caribbean SIDS: Challenges and strategies’. International Journal of Sustainable Development & World Ecology. Available at this URL.
  • Khan, M., Robinson, S., Weikmans, R., Ciplet, D. and Roberts, J. T. 2020, ‘Twenty-five years of adaptation finance through a climate justice lens’. Climatic Change, 261, 251-269. Available at this URL.
  • Gilfillan, D., Robinson, S. and Barrowman, H. 2020, ‘Action research for enhancing inter-organisational coordination of climate change adaptation in the Pacific’. Challenges, 11(1), 8. Available at this URL.
  • Robinson, S. 2020, ‘Climate change adaptation in SIDS: A systematic review of the literature pre and post the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report’. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews (WIREs): Climate Change, 11(4), e653. Available at this URL.
  • Holler, J., Bernier, Q.*, Roberts, J. T. and Robinson, S. 2020, ‘Transformational adaptation in Least Developed Countries: Does expanded stakeholder participation make a difference?’, Sustainability, 12, 1657. Available at this URL.
  • Robinson, S. and Wren, C.* 2020, ‘Geographies of vulnerability: A research note on human system adaptations to climate change in the Caribbean’. Geografisk Tidsskrift-Danish Journal of Geography, 120(1), 79-86. Available at this URL.
  • Nguyen, C.* and Robinson, S. 2019, ‘Differential climate change impacts and adaptation responses in the Caribbean Lesser Antilles’. Caribbean Geography, 24, 1-23.
  • Robinson, S. 2019, ‘A commentary on national adaptation policy drivers: The case of SIDS’. Climatic Change, 154(3-4), 303-313. Available at this URL.
  • Robinson, S. 2019, ‘Mainstreaming climate change adaptation in SIDS’, Climate and Development, 11(1), 47-59. Available at this URL.
  • Robinson, S. 2018, ‘Climate change adaptation in SIDS: Insights and lessons from a meta-paradigmatic study’, Environmental Science & Policy, 85, 172-181. Available at this URL.
  • Robinson, S. 2018, ‘Adapting to climate change at the national level in Caribbean SIDS’, Island Studies Journal, 13(1), 79-100. Available at this URL.
  • Saxena, A., Qui, K.* and Robinson, S. 2018, ‘Knowledge, attitudes and practices of climate adaptation actors towards resilience and transformation in a 1.5C world’, Environmental Science & Policy, 80, 152-159. Available at this URL.
  • Robinson, S. 2018, ‘Climate change adaptation limits in SIDS’. In W. Leal Filho and J. Nalau (Eds.), Limits to Adaptation, Springer, Cham. Available at this URL.
  • Khan, M., Roberts, J. T., Huq, S., Hoffmeister, V.*, Mahmud, S., Twinomuhangi, R., Epitu, J. and Robinson, S. 2018, ‘Case studies: Bangladesh, Uganda, and Jamaica’. Chapter 5 in Khan, M., Roberts, J. T., Huq, S. and Hoffmeister, V., The Paris Framework for Climate Change Capacity Building, Routledge, London. Available at this URL.
  • Khan, M., Roberts, J. T., Huq, S., Hoffmeister, V.*, Mahmud, S., Twinomuhangi, R. and Robinson, S. 2018, ‘Universities as the central hub of capacity building’. Chapter 7 in Khan, M., Roberts, J. T., Huq, S. and Hoffmeister, V., The Paris Framework for Climate Change Capacity Building, Routledge, London. Available at this URL.
  • Khan, M., Roberts, J. T., Huq, S., Hoffmeister, V.*, and Robinson, S. 2018, ‘Capacity building and transparency under Paris’. Chapter 8 in Khan, M., Roberts, J. T., Huq, S. and Hoffmeister, V., The Paris Framework for Climate Change Capacity Building, Routledge, London. Available at this URL.
  • Robinson, S. and Dornan, M. 2017, ‘International financing for climate change adaptation in SIDS’, Regional Environmental Change, 17(4), 1103–1115. Available at this URL.
  • Robinson, S. and Gilfillan, D. 2017, ‘Regional organisations and climate change adaptation in SIDS’, Regional Environmental Change, 17(4), 989–1004. Available at this URL.
  • Robinson, S. 2017, ‘Climate change adaptation trends in SIDS’, Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, 22(4), 669–691. Available at this URL.

Editorial Appointments