Situated in the Eastern Cape - one of the poorest regions of South Africa - the vision of the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) as a values-driven university (carrying the name of Nelson Mandela) is to be the leader in optimising the potential of its communities towards sustainable development in Africa. For this reason the NMMU has committed itself to focus on academic programmes that will lead to poverty alleviation through job creation and other strategic interventions. Their Master’s and PhD programmes attract students from all over the world, especially from other African countries. NMMU is instrumental in founding the South African Centre for Climate Change together with four other key institutions for climate research and education in South Africa, which will strengthen the local network and cooperation from which the North-South Climate Network is also going to benefit.

Since the mid 1990ies, NMMU has sustained a lively partnership with the University of Oldenburg, especially in the subject field of teacher education and research and later also continuing education and educational management. Since early 2008 these subject fields have been extended to Renewable Energy, Environmental Sciences, Biodiversity and Land use as well as Development Studies and Economics.

Within the framework of the subject related partnership and network "Developing Sustainability", key actors in the natural, economic and development sciences at NMMU have become partners to their Oldenburg counterparts, For instance is the successful programme at Oldenburg University, "Postgraduate Programme Renewable Energy", being implemented at NMMU with the support of Oldenburg scientists and academic managers. Additionally, a research focus area of ‘wind energy and turbulence research’ is being established with the support of an Oldenburg professor and researcher. During a kick-off meeting at Oldenburg University in 2009, several other research and teaching topics in the field of environmental sciences and coastal management were identified that included climate adaptation issues as crucial and pressing points of interest. The Clim-A-Net enables the partners to work intensively on these topics.

Key institutes and structures for the Climate Network are the Faculty of Sciences with its focus on "energy for the future" and "environmental and natural resource management" as well as the School of Economics with its Department of Development Studies. The Climate Network particularly benefits from the strong expertise of the Department of Geosciences, as the Department for Geosciences focuses on geographical research in the fields of Land Degradation, particularly soil erosion, vegetation change and invasions, and implications for climatic change; urban agriculture and sustainable development issues in urban environments. Thus, the Department of Geosciences functions as a linking pin for the scientific work within the Climate Network. The Department plays a significant role in the activities of the Institute for Environmental and Coastal Management, particularly with regard to coastal processes, marine, estuarine and coastal dune deposits, groundwater, marine and estuarine pollution and environmental impact assessments and is a partner in the Center for African Conservation Ecology (ACE), formerly Terrestrial Ecology Research Unit (TERU).

Clim-A-Net coordinator at NMMU is Professor Vincent Kakembo. Professor Kakembo is serving as the Director of the Department of Geosciences. The research interests of Professor Kakembo are focussing on vegetation patterns, erosion forms, landscape function, land use, vegetation change, vegetation condition and remote sensing. Vincent Kakembo holds a PhD from Rhodes University and is associate Professor in Geography at the Department of Geosciences, NMMU.