Balgis Osman-Elasha

Balgis Osman-Elasha is a Sudanese climate scientist who studies the effects of climate change in Africa and promotes sustainable development and climate change adaptations. She was a lead writer on the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report that garnered the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change a Nobel Peace Prize, and she was named a 2008 United Nations Environment Programme Champion of the Earth.

Career Osman-Elasha has been a climatologist and climate change expert at the African Development Bank since 2009. She has described the severe effects of climate change in Africa, particularly in the Horn of Africa region; promoted climate change adaptations; and pointed out the disparate contributions to climate change by industrialized countries. She notes that marginalized people, and women, particularly, are disproportionately affected by the negative effects of climate change, due to their dependence on threatened natural resources and because poverty limits their ability to adapt.

Balgis Osman-Elasha (second from right) participating in a panel on "adaptation of forests to climate change." Organized by IUFRO, CIFOR, ICRAF and PROFOR-World Bank; January 2011.

Osman-Elasha began her career doing forestry work at Sudan's Forests National Corporation in the 1980s. Her Fuelwood Development for Energy project emphasized community forestry, fuel conservation, and sustainable forest management. Her work there included conducting greenhouse gas analyses, which caused her to realize the link between rising greenhouse gases and deforestation in Sudan. Her research there addressed climate change vulnerabilities and adaptations in drought-prone regions. Her father worked for a bank and a restaurant in Khartoum.

Osman-Elasha is married and has three children.

Selected publications

Osman-Elasha, Balgis (2012-04-17). "In the shadow of climate change". UN Chronicle. 46 (4): 54–55. https://doi.org/10.18356/5d941c92-en Elasha, B. O. (2010). Mapping of climate change threats and human development impacts in the Arab region. UNDP Arab Development Report–Research Paper Series, UNDP Regiona Bureau for the Arab States. https://arab-hdr.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/paper02-en.pdf Nyong, A., Adesina, F. & Osman Elasha, B. (2007). The value of indigenous knowledge in climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies in the African Sahel. Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change 12, 787–797. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11027-007-9099-0 Osman-Elasha, B., Goutbi, N., Spanger-Siegfried, E., Dougherty, B., Hanafi, A., Zakieldeen, S.... & Elhassan, H. M. (2006). Adaptation strategies to increase human resilience against climate variability and change: Lessons from the arid regions of Sudan. Assessments of impacts and adaptations to climate change (AIACC) working paper, 42. http://www.start.org/Projects/AIACC_Project/working_papers/Working%20Papers/AIACC_WP42_Osman.pdf Elasha, B. O., Elhassan, N. G., Ahmed, H., & Zakieldin, S. (2005). Sustainable livelihood approach for assessing community resilience to climate change: case studies from Sudan. Assessments of impacts and adaptations to climate change (AIACC) working paper, 17.