Today at Brown

J. Timmons Roberts is a leading public voice in the global debate over who should take responsibility and action to address the climate change crisis. In addition to wealthy countries making a good faith effort to reduce emissions, he says those nations will need to help developing nations both financially and technologically to do what they need to do to help save the atmosphere.

“We’re at an impasse over negotiations on how we’re going to solve this crisis to our species,” Roberts said. “There is distrust and inequality between the wealthy and the poor countries. This is about applying the core issue of sociology — that is, inequality — and finding how social inequality creates uneven environmental impacts and hinders efforts to address them.”

Roberts’ interests in environmental science and policy are extensive. His research centers on global inequality and climate change and the role of foreign aid in addressing climate justice matters. In his recent book, Greening Aid? Understanding the Environmental Impact of Development Assistance (Oxford University Press, 2008), Roberts and his colleagues compile more than 400,000 environmental aid projects — the largest dataset of foreign aid ever assembled — and analyze the projects to find out whether they are actually improving environmental protection and clean-up in the developing world.

Roberts’ current work focuses on questions of environmental justice on a global level. “You can’t just solve environmental problems in a technical way without dealing with the social problems that underlie them,” he says.

Roberts received a B.A. in biology from Kenyon College in 1983 and a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University in the Department of Sociology’s Program in Comparative International Development in 1992. He previously taught at the College of William and Mary, directing its Program in Environmental Science and Policy, and held a joint appointment in Latin American studies and sociology at Tulane University, where he co-directed the Environmental Studies program for 10 years. Roberts was also a James Martin 21st Century Professor at Oxford University’s Environmental Change Institute and a Research Fellow at William and Mary's Institute for the Theory and Practice of International Relations. He is the co-author of five books and more than 50 articles, reviews, and chapters concerning climate change, globalization, and environmental justice.

At Brown, Roberts says he’s most eager to provide students with the opportunity and support to work on some of our planet’s most urgent environmental issues. “Brown students are trying to save the world, and I am too. I’m excited to see students who are willing to take the chance and think this big, and this audaciously.”