SouthSouthNorth (SSN) came into being in 1999 when Hélène Connor (HELIO International), Emilio La Rovere, (COPPE Federal University of Rio de Janeiro), Steve Thorne, and Stefan Raubenheimer met up during the inter-sessional Subsidiary Body meeting of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Bonn, Germany, in late 1999. Steve and Emilio had been commissioned by Helio International to propose a set of criteria and indicators to appraise sustainable development attributes of Clean Development Mechanism projects and present them at a side event at the Climate Change event.

The SSN Group comprises two entities: SSN Non-Profit Company (NPC) and SSN Pty Ltd. The NPC is the primary vehicle for delivering the bulk of SSN’s work. This legal structure gives us the flexibility to collaborate with a variety of partners and entities.