Robbert Biesbroek

Background

About Robbert Biesbroek

With a background in public policy, I explore how state and non-state actors deal with emerging boundary spanning policy problems that crosscut spatial, temporal and administrative systems, particularly climate change impacts and risks. I have a particular fascination for the governance challenges these problems present and how these actors respond. Most of my work is comparative in nature, using a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods. Since 2025, I am Coordinating Lead Author for IPCC WGII AR7, chapter 3:"Current adaptation progress, effectiveness and adequacy". In 2024 I was selected as technical expert to support the indicator work under the UAE-Belem program of the UN to track progress towards the global goal on adaptation, and was selected as expert to contribute to the IPCC AR7 scoping meeting (December 2024). Since 2023 I am a Scientific Committee member of the UN World Adaptation Science Program. I was involved in several international assessments, including the EU Climate Risk Assessment (EUCRA) where I co-led a chapter on Social Justice and Cohesion (2022-2024). Between 2018-2022 I was Coordinating Lead Author of the IPCC AR6 (WG II "Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability, Chapter 13: Europe), and author of the Technical Summary and Summary for Policymakers. I received personal research grants from the Dutch Research council on policy integration and climate change (NWO-VENI, 2018-2021) and to analyze the politics of tracking climate change adaptation (NWO-VIDI, 2022-2027). I am editor of the scientific journal Regional Environmental Change (2016-) and associate deputy editor of Climatic Change (2023-) Over the years, I have published over 100 scientific papers on public policy and climate change adaptation.