Denyse S. Dookie

Denyse is a Research Fellow at the Grantham Research Institute, having joined GRI in September 2019. She is particularly interested in exploring the nature and role of weather and climate information in climate-related decision-making. Her work broadly focuses on assessing the availability and relevance of climate data for local contexts, investigating ways to improve its use by policymakers, and strengthening the science-policy dialogue between climate information providers and end users, employing both quantitative and qualitative research methods.

Denyse is currently focused on two key GRI projects, as:

• LSE Project Director of healthRiskADAPT – User-driven health Risk Assessment Services and Innovative ADAPTation options as Transformative Solutions against Threats from Heatwaves, Air Pollution, Wildfire Emission and Pollen (November 2024 – October 2028, funded by EU Horizon Europe research and innovation programme). Denyse contributes to WP3 focused on “Health, Risk and Vulnerability”, leading efforts on adaptive capacity, WP5 focused on Adaptation Options”, with specific focus on designing education programmes for using climate information, as well as overall project management and inter-work package discussions. 
• Work Package Lead and Project Co-Lead of ATTENUATE – creating the enabling conditions for UK climate adaptation investment (March 2025 – September 2027, funded by UKRI-Defra). Her efforts on this project concentrate on the design of bespoke climate storylines in adaptation investment for the project’s case studies. Such storylines are expected to support communication and uptake of climate information, impacts, and risks in testing adaptation finance solutions. More broadly, these efforts will engage decision-makers to identify behavioural barriers to more radical responses when considering financial impacts of policy choices and the potential for storylines as interventions.

At GRI, Denyse previously worked on and continues to provide support to the following projects:

• BASIN – Behavioural Adaptation for water Security and Inclusion (2023-2026, funded by the CLARE programme). Denyse continues to contribute to research topics relevant to partner institutions in sub-Saharan countries including Tanzania, Burkina Faso and Malawi, that focus on enhancing uptake and use of climate information at community level, as well as uptake of community-produced information by national level authorities. She also developed a LinkedIn-based Community of Practice on Behavioural Approaches for Water Security in Africa (please reach out if you’re interested in joining!)
• Targeting gender and inclusion in climate information development and use in South Africa (2024-2025, funded by LSE’s International Science Partnerships Fund (ISPF)). Denyse led and collaborated with a consortium of researchers from LSE, Kulima Integrated Development Solutions (South Africa), the University of Cape Town, and the University of Pretoria to complete a survey and semi-structured interviews with a sample of entrepreneurs in South Africa to understand gendered dimensions of climate risk and climate information awareness and use.
• Research on adaptation by organisations within the UK, through a survey of UK organisations on preparedness, adaptation and risk, including an understanding of adaptive capacity and the use of climate information.
• Caribbean and small islands-related research, including analyses of perspectives and challenges on the usage of climate information within the region. More broadly, Denyse has contributed to academic economic and scientific research, policy formulation, and practical interventions that aim to mitigate climate risks and promote sustainable development for small island states. She participated in processes including the Small Island Developing States (SIDS) Future Forum 2024.

Denyse will be a Lead Author on the upcoming IPCC Seventh Assessment Report (AR7), Working Group II, Chapter 13 “Small Islands” and was an Expert Reviewer for the AR6 WGII “Small Islands” chapter. She was a contributing author on the Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction 2022 and a Reviewer for the Adaptation Gap Report 2024 and 2025. She is a member of the Policy and Finance Committee of the World Adaptation Science Programme, and contributes to the UK Met Office-led UKCP Development and Knowledge Sharing Network. 

Background

Denyse is a national of Trinidad and Tobago. She completed her PhD in Sustainable Development at Columbia University focusing on the potential for using climate information for disaster and climate risk management in the context of Caribbean small islands by combining climate information (including satellite rainfall data and storm advisories), economic and disaster data, alongside local perspectives. She also completed MA degrees in Climate and Society (Columbia University) and in Development Studies/Economics of Development (International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam in The Hague), as well as a post-graduate diploma in International Relations from the University of the West Indies in Trinidad and Tobago. Denyse has assisted a WB/ADB project by compiling climate change risk profiles for Pacific small islands, and has worked with institutions including UNCTAD, Inter-American Development Bank, UNDP, UNDESA, and the Permanent Mission of Trinidad and Tobago to the UN in New York.

Research Interests

• Evaluating and using climate information for decision-making
• Climate change adaptation and resilience, disaster risk reduction
• Climate and society
• Improving resilience to climate and weather shocks (including communication and preparedness)
• Small Island Developing States
• Adaptation finance