Spotlight on African Women In Science Mitigating the Effects of Climate Change: Rondrotiana Barimalala

Although the economic growth of the African island states in the Southwest Indian Ocean (SWIO) region is threatened by the impacts of climate change, there is limited understanding of the basic mechanisms that drive the climate variability in the area. Analyses of conventional climate model outputs, current and future, under different global warming levels including cyclone frequency and impacts, are very scarce. The critically limited climate information available for major climate-sensitive decisions hampers these countries’ efforts toward sustainable development.

With a particular focus on Madagascar, Dr Barimalala’s research findings answered these concerns and is now contributing to the scientific understanding of the climate variability and change in the island.

“My work focuses primarily on the interaction between the air and the ocean. The atmosphere and the ocean are two major systems which cannot be separated if you want to understand climate. The main focus of my studies is to understand the interaction between these two systems,” she explained in this interview with SciDev.Net

Her insights have facilitated the integration of a science-based knowledge focus into the country’s climate-sensitive decisions, adaptation and mitigation plans as well as on the national risk awareness and responses.

In 2019 Dr Barimalala was a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a body of expert climate scientists. Last year, she was one of the contributing authors to IPCC Report, Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis.