Africans Appeal to Obama As He Receives Nobel: ‘Keep Alive the Dreams of Our Fathers’

Contact:    Kari Fulton +45 5265 8829

MEDIA ADVISORY Edrea Davis +45 50969169

PRESS CONFERENCE THURSDAY 8:30AM Alex Rafalowicz+45 52649259

African Parliamentarians And Civil Society Call For Climate Justice

WHAT: African Parliamentarians and members of African Civil Society groups will be joined by representatives from US civil rights and environmental justice NGOs at a press conference Thursday from the Cop15 in Copenhagen to make an urgent appeal to US President Barak Obama calling for leadership on the issue of climate justice.  The Pan African Climate Justice Alliance, an alliance of civil society organizations in 43 countries across Africa will issue an urgent appeal to Obama as he prepares to receive the Nobel Peace Prize tonight in Norway.

WHERE: Asger Jorn, NGO Press Conference Room, Bella Center, Copenhagen, Denmark

WHEN: 8:30 a.m. Thursday, December 10, 2009

WHO: Jacqui Patterson, Director, Climate Justice Initiative, NAACP

Michele Roberts, Campaign and Policy Coordinated, Advocates for Environmental Human Rights

Felicia Davis, Coordinator, Black Women’s Roundtable

Hon Awudu Cyprian Mbaya, President, Pan-African Parliamentarian Network on Climate Change

Augustine Njamnshi, PACJA steering committee member for Central Africa

Mithika Mwenda, Coordinator, Pan-African Climate Justice Alliance

WHY: Africans and US citizens of the African Diaspora are appealing to Obama to take leadership and insure climate justice for Africa, a continent on the front lines of climate change.

African Americans will receive the letter to President Obama from the African coalition and will deliver it to the president as a follow up to COP15 negotiations.  Representing a coalition of more than 30 US civil rights and environmental justice NGOs and millions of African Americans, the group has pledged to work with the African coalition to ensure that Obama honors his commitment to Africa.  They share a common goal to ensure climate security for all people of African descent.