13 October 2009: An African Parliamentarians Summit, entitled “Climate Change: One Africa, One Voice, One Position,” convened from 13-14 October 2009, at the headquarters of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) in Nairobi, Kenya.

At the opening of the Summit, Kenya’s President Mwai Kibaki called for “aggressive initiatives to provide for the reduction of greenhouse gases and domestication” of international and regional instruments on climate change. The Summit was co-organized by the Kenyan Parliament, the Pan African Parliamentarians Network on Climate Change and the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance. It sought to consolidate past and ongoing efforts by African parliamentarians in the lead-up to the special session of the African Union-African Ministerial Conference on Environment (AU-AMCEN) scheduled from 19-23 October 2009, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, as well as for the climate negotiations in Copenhagen in December. [UNEP Press Release]