Youba Sokona is Special Advisor for Sustainable Development at the South Centre. He was elected Vice-Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in October 2015. Prior to this, he was Co-Chair of IPCC Working Group III on the mitigation of climate change for the Fifth Assessment Report after serving as a Lead Author since 1990. In addition to these achievements, he has a proven track record of organisational leadership and management, for example, leading the conception, development and initiating the Africa Renewable Energy Initiative, as the first Coordinator of the African Climate Policy Centre (ACPC) and as Executive Secretary of the Sahara and the Sahel Observatory (OSS).