Speech by Ms Buyelwa Sonjica, South African Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs, at European Union (EU) energy and environment Ministers meeting, Åre, Sweden

Honourable Minister, Andreas Carlgren
Fellow Ministers
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen

I would like to express my appreciation to the European Union for hosting this event and indeed for extending an invitation to myself. Honourable Ministers, we welcome this meeting as it gives us another opportunity to forge common ground on the damaging effects of climate change as well as assess progress we have made in addressing it. We are confident that our gathering here is another step towards declaring 2009 to be the year of the next big deal on climate change.
What we need, is to forge new partnership and strengthen old ones in unity towards achieving an outcome in Copenhagen.

As developing countries the overriding priorities of developing countries are socio-economic development with emphasis on poverty eradication, job creation, health and education and of course to bring real changes to our people in far flung rural areas. We need to locate our efforts around climate change within the same debate on achieving our millennium development goals. We owe it to our future generation to act responsibly. Our development path includes using our resources in an efficient and sustained manner.

In South Africa, the climate question is both energy and a development question. On the one hand, about 30 percent of households do not yet have access to modern energy services as well as in many areas access to clean drinking water needs to be realised.

As you would appreciate our situation in the continent is unique because we contribute about 2% of the 3,8% of emissions that Africa contributes. Consequently we have adopted a balanced approach looking at adaptation and mitigation.

We develop a Long Term Mitigation Scenario (LTMS) to inform our national response to climate change policy. We are in the process of completing the LTAP in the next six months. Our greenhouse gas (GHG) second communication report is due for public consultation. The various sectors are developing sector specific strategies for climate change.

As a country that relies heavily on fossil fuels approximately 80 percent of our electricity is generated from coal. We adopted an energy mix policy, fossil and renewable energy. We have started implementing this policy but the biggest challenge is to produce renewable technology in South Africa. However we collaborate with countries like United Kingdom (UK), Norway, and Denmark on solar, nuclear, wind power (upscaling), hydropower (lowscale), biomass and energy efficiency. We feel that the latter is low hanging fruit. It should be vigorously pursued by all of us.

Chairperson, South Africa and Africa is committed to seeing Copenhagen deliver on an outcome that is fair, just and effective, that balances adaptation and mitigation, but also balances development imperatives with climate change imperatives. We accept the scientist view that the temperature should not rise above two degrees, although I must hasten to say that I express the position of Africa on this issue.

We also welcome the reduction of an 80 percent to 95 percent by 2015 by developed countries, with 1990 being the base line. However we would want a package that includes a bold midterm commitment of 40% by 2020. We are also saying developing countries should make bold commitments guided by the principle of common but differentiated and these must be measurable, reportable and verifiable. We support the upscaling of funding. However we are concerned and would not support the mechanisms put for both the green fund and Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s fund.

We think that this is another measure that will overburden developing countries. We believe that the real debate for Copenhagen is mainly on two issues; firstly the targets for reductions and secondly, the mechanisms to fund climate change programmes. This is where we need to focus our energies between now and December.

Honourable chair, we are putting our best efforts into making a fair contribution to this global challenge but the extent to which South Africa will be able to realise this ambitious vision will depend on the support that the international community gives through finance, technology transfer and the building of human and institutional capacity.

Guided by the Intergovernmental Panel Climate Change (IPCC) assessments of science, we recognise the importance of enhanced action that is ambitious, realistic and achievable. Developed countries and developing counties must make greater efforts in moving towards eco-efficient economies and this should be evident in their emission reduction commitments. Even in the midst of the current financial crisis, it is the responsibility of developed countries to take the lead in combating climate change, not least through funding and technology transfer to developing countries. The EU together with other developed countries should spear head efforts to manage and protect the global environmental resources.

Financing eco-efficient economies

Honourable chair, the climate negotiations should intensify despite the global economic downturn. The current financial crisis cannot be allowed to diminish efforts to deal with the longer term climate crisis. In the face of a serious crisis, the world has now demonstrated that it is possible to raise significant amounts of money to meet a common global challenge. A coherent financial architecture & access to predictable funding will be indispensable for a successful outcome in the climate negotiations in Copenhagen, not least in building more trust.

In many cases the technologies exist but the deployment and financing of these technologies are the key problems. A key challenge in terms of the wider deployment of climate-friendly technologies is the issue of incremental costs, which in turn links the difficult area of intellectual property right (IPR) barriers. The broad approach is to redress the skewed IPR regime, not to do away with IPR. South Africa does not want to remain a buyer of technology and IPR forever, but rather become a co-owner and developer of climate friendly technology. Though we acknowledge the importance of the appropriate protection of IPRs to stimulate technology research, development and diffusion, the reality is that IPRs also constitute a cost barrier.

It will increasingly become imperative for the EU led by Sweden to demonstrate how it intends to assist the movement to eco-efficient economies in the developing countries.

In conclusion, I would like to thank you for this opportunity and trust that our deliberations here will contribute to a desired outcome in the months ahead towards the Copenhagen meeting. We dare not fail.

I thank you

Issued by: Department of Water and Environmental Affairs
24 July 2009

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