Working Group II is Co-Chaired by Professor Debra Roberts (South Africa) and Professor Hans-Otto Portner (Germany). Professor Roberts is a local government practitioner and currently works as the Acting Head of the Sustainable and Resilient City Initiatives Unit in eThekwini Municipality. Roberts is the first South African practitioner-scientist working in local government to have been elected for a leading role in the IPCC. Her election reflects the increasing efforts to link scientific knowledge with practice. Having a local IPCC office will also help strengthen the African voice in IPCC processes and products
The Working Group II Technical Support Unit is located at the Alfred Wegener Institute in Bremen and at the School of Life Sciences, University of KwaZulu Natal. In February 2018, Dr Marlies Craig and Dr Andrew Okem joined the Durban IPCC office as Natural Science and Social Science Officers respectively, with Ms Philisiwe Manqele as the Administrative Officer. Dr Michelle North and Dr Nina Hunter are two postdoctoral researchers associated with the office as part of the commitment to build local climate change.
