The Secretary-General met today, on the margins of the UN Climate Change Conference in Cancún, with a group of African ministers, headed by Jean Ping, Chair of the Commission of the African Union, and Raila Odinga, Prime Minister of Kenya. They discussed the central needs of African countries and the importance of putting those needs at the heart of negotiations. They spoke about the current state of the negotiations and the need to leave Cancún with a clear outcome.

They also underlined the need to address adaptation as well as mitigation needs, and the importance of an agreement that addresses the Kyoto Protocol in addition to funding issues, monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) issues, and deforestation.