President Jacob Zuma will attend the Twenty First Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework for Climate Change Convention, which runs from the end of November through to mid-December in Paris, France.
The President will attend the Heads of State and Government segment on the 30th of November.
Having launched the negotiations that will conclude this year at COP 17 in Durban in 2011, South Africa has a special interest in doing all that it can to ensure the success of the Paris COP.
The President said for South Africa, a fair and ambitious legally binding agreement will mark the successful conclusion of the mandate agreed to by consensus in Durban to enhance implementation of the existing Convention.
“To be successful, the new agreement must be fair. Fairness would imply respect for the Convention’s principle of Common but Differentiated Responsibilities and Respective Capabilities’’, said President Zuma.
As the current Chair of the Group of 77 and Chinaand an active member of the Africa Group of Negotiators (AGN) and Brazil, South Africa, India and China (BASIC) Group, South Africa also has the special responsibility of advancing the collective and shared interests of developing countries in the negotiations for the Paris Agreement.
This necessitates defending the legal rights of developing countries under the Convention and to receive the support they require to make the transition to a low carbon economy and to adapt to the reality of a climate that is already changing and the loss and damage that is associated with this.
“The provision of financial resources, technology transfer and development and capacity building, is central to the Paris Agreement. The reality is that without adequate, predictable and sustainable means of implementation, it will be impossible to reach our agreed temperature target. This is because key mitigation potential is in developing countries, such as South Africa, and these countries are not able to realise this potential on their own. Finance will be of central importance to the Paris outcome and has to be an integral part of the Agreement itself,’’ said the President.
The President will be accompanied by the Minister of Environmental Affairs, Ms Edna Molewa.
Enquiries:
Bongani Majola
Cell: 082 339 1993
E-mail: bonganim@presidency.gov.za
