“Climate change is rapidly emerging as one of the most serious threats that humanity may ever face,” said Mr. Kibwana, who is also the President of the conference.

More than 5,000 participants from 178 countries are in Nairobi for the two-week meeting, which will focus on adaptation to climate change, developing market mechanisms to reduce carbon emissions, and the future of post Kyoto cooperation. The Kyoto Protocol expires at the end of 2012.

This is the twelfth Conference of the 189 Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the second meeting of the 166 Parties to the Kyoto Protocol. The conference is the first UN climate summit in sub-Saharan Africa.

“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,” Mr. Kibwana warned. He added that scarce resources that would otherwise be channelled into essential projects to further economic development would instead be used for other emergencies, such as health care crises, water shortages or food stock failures.

The UNFCCC’s Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer called for specific activities to be agreed within the five-year work plan on impact, vulnerability and adaptation.

“We expect countries to take decisions in Nairobi that will enhance action on adaptation on the ground,” he said. “Ministers meeting in Nairobi have an opportunity to reach agreement on critical elements of the governance and management of the Adaptation Fund.”

The Adaptation Fund is financed by a share of proceeds generated by the Kyoto Protocol’s clean development mechanism that permits industrialized countries which are members of the Protocol to invest in sustainable development projects in developing countries, and thereby generate tradable emission credits.