Carolina Adler

Executive Director

Carolina Adler, a dual national from Chile and Australia, is an Environmental Scientist and Geographer by background, with an international career spanning over 22 years in both research and practice in the public and private sectors. As the current Executive Director of the Mountain Research Initiative (MRI), she is tasked with overseeing the work of the MRI Coordination Office, as well as connecting, coordinating, and promoting global change research agendas and supporting regional and thematic networked collaborations in mountains worldwide.

Carolina Adler obtained her PhD at Monash University (Australia) in 2010, focusing on climate change adaptation and relevant policy processes for sustainable development in mountain regions, receiving the Harold D Lasswell Prize in 2010 for best thesis. Since then, Adler has focused her research and consulting activities on the assessment and evaluation of inter- and transdisciplinary collaborations on questions related to sustainable development in mountains, as well as the use of scientific evidence in regional and global assessment efforts and uptake in policy and decision-making contexts.

Adler is Lead Author in Chapter 2 "High Mountain Areas" in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Special Report on Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate (SROCC), released last September 2019, as well as Lead Author for the IPCC Working Group II on Impacts, Vulnerability, and Adaptation and Co-Lead for the Cross-Chapter Paper on Mountains for the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6), due in 2021. Following a passion for mountains, she shares her environmental expertise as delegate to the International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation (Union International des Associations d'Alpinisme - UIAA) Mountain Protection Commission, later in 2016 assuming the role of President. When not at her work desk, Carolina Adler is most likely to be found enjoying the great outdoors in the mountains.

More information:
MRI Expert Database
ORCID
ResearchGate

Twitter: @drcarolinadler | @MntResearch | @GEO_Mountains

Content shared by Carolina

Blue sky with green mountains covered in colourful looking houses

Human populations in the world’s mountains: Spatio-temporal patterns and potential controls

Delve into the data and trends of human populations in mountainous regions, and explore the associations between mountain populations and different environmental covariates. Findings may inform predictions of future mountain population distributions under scenarios of future climatic change.

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4 people speaking at a COP27 panel event

COP27 - Cascading impacts: how can we adapt and reduce risk in the mountains and downstream?

Watch and learn about this COP27 side event which focused on the impacts and risks from upstream-downstream hazards in mountains, which have cascading and compounding detrimental effects on both local and downstream ecosystems and billions of people worldwide.

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© Thierry Roge / Reuters

Leave No Mountain Behind

Why, despite the essential role mountains play in enabling countries and regions adapt to climate change, reduce disaster risks and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, are mountain communities often left behind economically and politically? Learn more in this issue brief.

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Photo by Paul Daly on Unsplash

Identifying user data requirements and access preferences across the Andes

This workshop sought to develop a broad, interdisciplinary, and systematic understanding of the current “data situation” across a range of relevant disciplines in the Andean region.

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Photo by Tomáš Malík on Unsplash

Inter- and transdisciplinary mountain data in the Caucasus: Identifying user requirements and access preferences

This workshop sought to develop a broad, interdisciplinary, and systematic understanding of the current “data situation” across a range of relevant disciplines in the Caucasus.

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flyer

A FRAGILE FUTURE: Can mountain communities adapt to climate change?

(Video) This hybrid online and in-person event presented the latest cryosphere science about the impacts and risks of climate change, and explored good adaptation solutions and experiences, especially in mountain areas, with a focus on developing countries.

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