Climate change

Climate change is already happening and represents one of the greatest environmental, social and economic threats facing the planet. The warming of the climate system is unmistakable, as is now evident from observations of increases in global average air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice, and rising global mean sea level.

Hon Makhosini Hlongwane M.P Zimbabwe (far right) in a light conversation on climate change with Mr. Samuel Njoroge.

Factors that can shape climate are often called climate forcings. These include such processes as variations in solar radiation, deviations in the Earth's orbit, mountain-building and continental drift, and changes in greenhouse gas concentrations. There are a variety of climate change feedbacks that can either amplify or diminish the initial forcing. Some parts of the climate system, such as the oceans and ice caps, respond slowly in reaction to climate forcing because of their large mass. Therefore, the climate system can take centuries or longer to fully respond to new external forcings.

As part of global effort to contain these climate forcings, an African Parliamentarians Summit on Climate Change entitled 'Climate Change: One Africa, One Voice, One Position', hosted by United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Nairobi was launched by Kenya's President Mwai Kibaki at the headquarters of the UNEP in Nairobi, Kenya.

Co-organized by the Kenyan Parliament, the Pan African Parliamentarians Network on Climate Change and the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance, the two-day meeting is aimed at consolidating past and ongoing efforts and initiatives by Parliamentarians in Africa in the run-up to the AU-AMCEN special session in Addis Ababa, 19-23 October 2009, and the climate negotiations in Copenhagen in December.

Honorable members, all the very best in this endeavour and this time keep your words for once :)