UN Economic Commission for Africa hosts climate change meeting

Experts, government ministers and senior United Nations officials will focus on combating climate change in Africa, including measures for adaptation and mitigation and financial resources and investment, at a forum due to take place tomorrow in Addis Ababa.

Around 100 experts and stakeholders from both Africa and member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) are expected to gather in the Ethiopian capital for the special session of the Africa Partnership Forum.

The UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), which is hosting the special session, says it is aimed at building a broad coalition around Africa’s concerns and expectations, in the run-up to the Copenhagen meeting of the parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in December, where negotiations are set to conclude on a new agreement for curbing greenhouse gas emissions.

The special session will be chaired by the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Meles Zenawi. Environment ministers from Sierra Leone, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Uganda, Burkina Faso, Rwanda, Cameroon, Sudan, Kenya, Mozambique and Algeria are expected to attend.