Posted by Julie-Anne Richards

Today the new President of the international negotiations on climate change (COPMOP) made a strong statement "Climate change is rapidly emerging as one of the most serious threats that humanity may ever face," said the President of the conference, Kenyan Environment Minister Kivutha.

Warning that global warming threatened the development goals for billions of the world's poorest people, conference President Kibwana said:   "We face a genuine danger that recent gains in poverty reduction will be thrown into reverse in coming decades, particularly for the poorest communities on the continent of Africa."

This first COPMOP to be held in Africa lends a sense of urgency to the negotiations, and places an emphasis on the adaptation work that is happening at COPMOP.  The meeting is already talking about adaptation and funding.  The funding pledged at the moment is less than 10% of what is needed - and we need to ramp this up significantly, if we're not to completely lose sight of the Millennium Development Goals (see www.cana.net.au/socialimpacts for how climate change will impact on MDGs).

Speaking of Africa, its very exciting to be here in Kenya.  The main problem with holding the meeting in Kenya, is that it is so much more tempting to do touristic things (safaris!) than work for 15 hours a day.  But, we still get to see a little of Kenya, even if it is out of the window of a taxi.  My taxi driver tonight was Tony Ngure. 

A local Kenyan, he said that Kenyans have noticed big changes in their weather patterns.  "We used to be able to tell when the rains were coming, and how long they would last for.  You might get it 2 or 3 days wrong, but you could tell when they were coming," he told me in the taxi on the way home.  "Now, we can't tell.  The rains come, the rains don't come, but we can't plan our crops around the rains anymore.  The rains are all messed up."

These negotiations must go well, so we can avoid much worst impacts for Kenyans, and others around the world.

Note:  the above is the opinion of Julie-Anne Richards, and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Climate Action Network.