**The leaders of 10 African countries are gathering in Ethiopia to try to agree a common position on climate change, months before a crucial UN meeting.**They are expected to renew demands for billions of dollars in compensation for Africa because of damage caused by global warming.
And they are likely to ask rich nations to cut emissions by 40% by 2012.
African nations are among the lightest polluters but analysts say they will suffer the most from climate change.
BBC science reporter Matt McGrath says the move to agree a common negotiating platform for Africa recognises the continent’s failure to make its voice heard on the debate.
‘Dismal co-ordination’
Kenya’s environment secretary, Alice Kaudia, told the BBC that the continent had to learn from other countries’ mistakes.
“One single country will not solve its environmental problems on its own, it will need partners and that’s why it’s very important that there’s that unified common position,” she said.
“The development of Africa should not go alongside the same mistakes that the developed world already made - to have these high emissions that are now affecting the whole world.”
One of the documents prepared for the meeting refers to the “dismal co-ordination” of the African negotiation process.
So far, delegations from individual countries have had limited success in making the case that Africa needs special help to cope with climate change.
The African Union (AU) leaders, meeting in Addis Ababa under the chairmanship of Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi, are attempting to change this.
The leaders of powerhouses South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya are among those expected to attend.
They will discuss a suggestion that developed countries should cut emissions by at least 40% by 2020, and that richer nations should provide $67bn (£40bn) a year to help the least well-off cope with rising temperatures.
They will also attempt to agree a set of key ideas so the continent will have just one delegation at UN negotiations in Copenhagen this December.
The Copenhagen conference will try to negotiate a replacement for the Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change, which expires in 2012.
Correspondents say the US, China, India and the European Union will have the greatest sway at the UN conference.
But if African leaders will be hoping that speaking with one voice at Copenhagen, their negotiating position is likely to be significantly enhanced.