South Africa will host the 11th BASIC Ministerial climate change meeting on 12 and 13 July 2012 in Johannesburg, Gauteng. The BASIC Group of countries comprises of relevant Ministers dealing with climate change from South Africa, India, China and Brazil.
The meeting will be implementing the agreement the Ministers reached at the 10th Ministerial Coordination meeting in New Delhi, in March 2012.
During the meeting, the BASIC Ministers will exchange views on the progress made in implementing the Durban decisions, as well as the conclusion of the Bali Roadmap negotiations at CoP18-CMP8 in Qatar later this year. It is widely expected that the two track negotiations on long-term cooperative action and further commitments for Annex I countries under the Kyoto Protocol will be terminated at CoP18-CMP8. Progress in the implementation of the Durban meeting decisions is, therefore, a key necessity for the successful conclusion of the Bali Roadmap in Qatar.
The BASIC meeting will also be used to discuss implementation of the historic Durban Platform, which ushered the negotiations for a post-2020 climate regime. The Ministerial meeting will be preceded by a meeting of experts and chief negotiators from the four countries. Their discussions will focus on the various approaches for raising ambition pre-2020 and how to find meaningful expression of equitable access to sustainable development in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
In line with the BASIC + approach, and with a view of strengthening coordination within the G+77 China, several other developing countries have been invited to the meeting. These are: Algeria, The Gambia, Nauru, Qatar and Swaziland
The BASIC countries, Brazil, China, India and South Africa have been increasingly playing a significant role in international environmental governance; with South Africa having hosted CoP17-CMP7, Brazil hosted the Rio+20 Conference, with India hosting CoP 10 of the Convention on Biological Diversity in the coming months, whilst China hosted the UNFCCC intersessional meeting in Tianjin during 2010, in the run-up to CoP16-CMP6 in Cancun.
Representing the BASIC countries and expected to attend, are: Ambassador Luis Alberto Figueiredo Machado, Vice Minister for the Environment, Energy, Science and Technology of the Ministry of External Relations, Brazil; Minister Zhenhua Xie the Vice Chairman, National Development & Reform Commission, China; Minister Molewa, Water and Environmental Affairs, South Africa and Ms Mira Mehrishi, Additional secretary to the Government of India, Ministry of Environment and Forestry, India.
A media briefing will be convened on completion of the BASIC meeting on Friday, 13 July 2012.
For accreditation purposes identity documents / passports and press cards are compulsory. Members of the media who wish to attend must submit their identity document numbers by 11 July.
Media briefing details:
Date: Friday, 13 July 2012
Time: 13h30 (Media accreditation will take place from 12h00 – 13h00)
Venue: Hilton Hotel, 138 Rivonia Road, Sandton, Gauteng.
For RSVP’s contact:
Moses Rannditsheni
Tel: 012 310 3901
Cell: 082 448 2450
E-mail: MRannditsheni@environment.gov.za
Xolani Ngoshela
Tel: 012 395 3078
Cell: 083 630 9519
E-mail: XNgoshela@environment.gov.za
For media queries contact:
Albi Modise
Cell: 083 490 2871
