South Africa will host the 15th BASIC Ministerial Climate Change Meeting on 26 – 28 June 2013 in Cape Town, Western Cape. The BASIC Group of countries include relevant Ministers dealing with climate change in South Africa, India, China and Brazil.
They have been meeting regularly on the margins of the various sessions under the United Nations Framework Conventions on Climate Change. This BASIC meeting will provide Ministers and senior negotiators with an opportunity for strategic discussion on key issues and dynamics that have emerged from the negotiations and informal consultations that have taken place thus far.
The meeting in Cape Town will be the second BASIC meeting in 2013, the first meeting was held in Chennai in India. In addition, this meeting follows the recently concluded United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) meeting in Bonn where negotiations under the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action (ADP) were prominent.
The ADP is the forum for negotiation of a protocol, legal instrument, or agreed outcome with legal force under the Convention, applicable to all parties as agreed at the 17th Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC in Durban in 2011. The objective is for this work to be completed by 2015. The Ministers will use the BASIC platform to discuss the Bonn outcomes and further coordinate their positions for the 2015 agreement.
Representing the BASIC countries and expected to attend, are: Minister Izabella Monicca Vieira Teixeira, Minister of Environment, Brazil; Minister Jayanthi Natargan, Minister of State Independent Charge of Environment and Forests, India; Minister Edna Molewa, Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs, South Africa and Mr Zhenhua Xie, Vice Chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission of China.
Also invited to attend, are: Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, Minister of Environment and Water Resources, Singapore; Minister Mduduzi Dlamini, Minister of Tourism and Environment, Swaziland; Mr Umakant Jha of Nepal, Chair of Least Developed Countries; Mr Tomasz Chruszczow of Poland, Incoming COP19 President; Mr Samuela Saumatau of Fiji, Chairperson of G77 and China; Ms Malene Moses of Nauru, Chairperson of Alliance Of Small Developing Island States and Mr Abdullah Bin Hammad Al Altiya of Qatar, current COP18 President.
A media briefing will be convened on completion of the BASIC meeting on Friday, 28 June 2013.
For accreditation purposes, identity documents/passports and press cards are compulsory.
Media briefing details are as follows:
Date: Friday, 28 June 2013
Time: 14:00
Venue: Vineyard Hotel and Spa, Colinton Road, Newlands, Cape Town
To RSVP, contact:
Ernest Mulibana
Cell: 082 263 7372
Tel: 021 405 9491
Email: EMulibana@environment.gov.za
