South Africa's Minister of Environmental Affairs, Ms Edna Molewa, has arrived in New York to attend the High Level Event of Climate Change happening tomorrow, 29 June 2015, at the United Nations Headquarters.
Today, 28 June 2015, the Minister attended a meeting of Ministers responsible for climate change from BASIC countries (Brazil, South Africa, India and China). The meeting discussed issues relating to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) negotiations. BASIC Group of countries is made up of the relevant Ministers dealing with climate change issues in their respective countries from South Africa, India, China and Brazil.
2015 is the critical and concluding year of the climate change negotiations initiated by the Durban COP in 2011 towards the adoption of a new “protocol, another legal instrument or an agreed outcome with legal force” under the Convention at the Paris COP at the end of the year. COP 21 will be hosted in Paris, France.
The Paris agreement will be implemented from 2020. Lima COP 20 / CMP 10 was a penultimate year for the negotiations of a new legal agreement. The Conference adopted the ‘Lima call for climate action, which managed to address three (differentiation, assessment of the contributions and scope of the contributions) of the five political issues facing the climate negotiations for a new legal agreement.
South Africa as a responsible global citizen has played an instrumental role in the achievements made in Lima, such as rallying other BASIC countries (Brazil, India and China) to support the Africa position. This marked a successful achievement by South Africa to use the BASIC countries to support the Africa common position and thus further strengthening South-South cooperation.
The Minister will also have bilateral meetings with her counterparts from different countries with a view to galvanize political ambition towards a positive outcome at the Climate Change Conference in Paris in December this year.
Enquiries:
Albi Modise
Cell: 083 490 2871
