South Africa is ready to join the over 190 parties at the 17th Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), taking place from 28 November to 9 December 2011 in Durban. As the Head of the South African Delegation for COP17, I am entrusted with the responsibility of leading the country’s delegation in pursuing its interests at the negotiations.
The primary objective of the conference is to reach agreement on how to effectively tackle climate change on global level in a fair manner, and in this way to address the threat it poses to human development and growth. Recognising that a comprehensive legal agreement will not be reached, South Africa envisages an outcome in Durban that will build from the Bali Roadmap and operationalisation of Cancun Agreements and pave a way for a comprehensive, multilateral rules-based climate regime.
Climate change is arguably the biggest challenge facing humankind, and the foremost threat to sustainable development, economic growth and quality of life. The development strides achieved by the African continent in the last decade are at risk from the effects of climate change, and a global response presents an opportunity for Africa to further its sustainable development objectives.Africa’s major economic sectors will be left vulnerable to climate sensitivity resulting from rising temperatures, erratic rainfall patterns and droughts, with potentially huge detrimental economic impacts expected to be recorded.
Our vulnerability as a continent is exacerbated by our developmental challenges like poverty, ecosystem degradation and low levels of resilience to disasters. Climatic changes resulting from this global warming could see agricultural yields in many African countries decrease by as much as 50% by 2050. Projected reductions in yield in some countries could be as much as 50% by 2020, and crop net revenues could fall by as much as 90% by 2100, with small-scale farmers being the most affected.
Our delegation to this year’s COP, has been focusing on the following preparatory work areas for the COP and they are,
- the development, compilation, approval and lobbying of the South African COP17 negotiating position;
- concluding the work on a national climate change policy response, which culminated in the approval of the national climate change response white paper
- the coordination and implementation Greening and Legacy Projects that reduce or offsets the impacts of climate change in order to leave a lasting legacy; and
- the Public Climate Change Outreach and Mobilisation Programme that is aimed at increasing awareness and understanding of climate change by various communities in South African as we approach the COP.
South Africa recognises that the success of COP17 is dependent on whether a balance can be struck along three primary areas of work:
1. Firstly, a balance must be achieved between operationalising the Cancun decisions and addressing pending issues from Bali that have not yet been finalised. In this regard we must concretise the mitigation pledges of Kyoto Parties in the 2nd commitment period of Kyoto Protocol, and agree on comparability of those pledges for non-Kyoto developed countries, whilst ensuring that the level of ambition is increased to reflect the required reduction of between 25 and 40% by developed countries by 2020.
2. Secondly, balance must be achieved in how we deal with the Convention and the Kyoto Protocol negotiations, recognizing that progress on transparency rules and compliance for non-Kyoto Parties under the Convention, as well as progress on a support regime on finance and technology is a enabler in achieving a second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol.
3. Finally, a comprehensive and balanced advancement of all elements that will comprise the future climate change regime, with a particular emphasis on finance and early capitalization of the Green Climate Fund; technology especially implementing the institutional arrangements agreed to in Cancun; and adaptation, focusing on concrete implementation of adaptation actions and linkage with the finance and technology mechanism. The context of this progress should be setting up processes to clarify the legal form of such a regime under the Convention.
COP17 must provide opportunity for both South Africa and the African continent at large to ensure that Climate Change and the associated changes in climate patterns do not threaten development.
As part of our programme we have proactively engaged with domestic stakeholders to develop South Africa’s national position and policy, and on the basis of which we engaged with the African continent at negotiator level through the Africa Group Negotiators (AGN), Ministerial level through the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN), and at Head of State and Government level through the Committee of African Heads of State and Government on Climate Change (CAHOSCC). We have further coordinated with other negotiating colleagues such as the BASIC countries (Brazil, India, China and South Africa) and with colleagues at the G77+China.
In 2005, at COP 15 talks held in Copenhagen, President Jacob Zuma announced South Africa’s commitment to implement nationally appropriate mitigation actions which collectively will result in the reduction of emissions by 34% relative to our Business as Usual trajectory by 2020 and by 42% in 2025 enabled with finance and technology in a context of an international agreement. This level of effort will enable our greenhouse gas emissions to peak between 2020 and 2025, plateau for approximately a decade and reduce in absolute terms thereafter. The development of our climate change response policy took cognisance of these commitments as well.
The study of climate change economics conducted by Sir Nicholas Stern showed that if no action is taken to mitigate climate change it would cost between 10% and 15% of global gross domestic product (GDP) by 2050. As part of our commitment towards a low carbon future, we recently gazetted the National Climate Change Response Policy. The policy confirms that climate change is already a measurable reality and along with other developing countries, South Africa is especially vulnerable to its impacts. The White Paper presents the South African Government’s vision for an effective climate change response and the long-term, just transition to a climate-resilient and lower-carbon economy and society.
In addressing adaptation, section 5 of the policy includes a risk-based process to identify and prioritise short- and medium-term adaptation interventions to be addressed in sector plans. The process will also identify the adaptation responses that require coordination between sectors and departments and it will be reviewed every five years. For the immediate future, sectors that need particular attention are water, agriculture and forestry, health, biodiversity and human settlements. Resilience to climate variability and climate change-related extreme weather events will be the basis for South Africa’s future approach to disaster management and we will use region-wide approaches where appropriate.
South Africa’s approach to mitigation is addressed in section 6 of the policy and balances the country’s contribution as a responsible global citizen to the international effort to curb global emissions with the economic and social opportunities presented by the transition to a lower-carbon economy as well as with the requirement that the country successfully tackles the development challenges facing it.
This policy embodies South Africa's commitment to a fair contribution to the stabilisation of global greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere and the protection of the country and its people from the impacts of unavoidable impacts of climate change. The policy outlines South Africa's vision for an effective climate change response and transition to a climate resilient and low-carbon economy and society.
We also recognise that if there is any legacy we can bestow on our people from this conference is the power of knowledge. Knowledge not only in understanding what climate change and how each and every one of us can contribute, but in knowing that decisions we make today determine the heritage of future generations. We have since launched a campaign that makes a clarion call to action, Climate Action Now. The campaign seeks to get all South Africans to understand this phenomenon called climate change while also empowering them with messages that will assist them to make informed decisions
South Africa, carrying the aspirations of Africa and the developing world hopes to succeed in keeping the Kyoto Protocol as part of a future climate regime, as we negotiate an outcome of the negotiations under the Convention.
The outcome of COP17/CMP7 must ensure that all countries acknowledge that the effects of climate change on the planet, its people and economies are not ignored.
