Thorsten Klose-Zuber heads the climate policy, economy and society department at ZUG, which includes overseeing Germany’s International Climate Initiative (IKI). Klose-Zuber studied geography and political science at the Ruhr-University Bochum and University of Namibia and completed his PhD in 2009 focusing on disaster preparedness within German humanitarian assistance. Between 2009 and 2019 he worked in various advisory and management capacities with the German Red Cross International Cooperation and the German Federal Foreign Office, with responsibilities spanning risk reduction, climate resilience, and anticipatory humanitarian action within German humanitarian assistance. Prior to this, he worked for two years with the NGO Help (Hilfe zur Selbsthilfe) implementing disaster preparedness programmes in the South Asian region following the 2004 tsunami.