DFFE Minister David Maynier opening remarks for the national stakeholder consultation on the UNFCCC's COP 31 mandate in Sandton
The Deputy Chairperson of the Presidential Climate Commission, Mr Patel and the Commissioners,
The Deputy Director-General of Climate Change and Air Quality, Mr Kekana,
Representatives of the government,
Representatives of business, labour, civil society, academia, communities and research institutions,
Members of the media,
All stakeholders present here,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Good morning.
It is my pleasure to welcome you to the National Stakeholder Consultation on South Africa’s negotiating mandate for the 31st Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC COP31), which will take place in Antalya, Türkiye next month.
This year’s Conference is unique as it will be presided over by two Presidencies, with Türkiye as the COP 31 President and host country, and Australia as the COP 31 President of Negotiations.
South Africa remains committed to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and its Paris Agreement, while ensuring that climate action supports sustainable development, industrialisation, poverty reduction, employment creation and a just transition.
The Conference will mark the beginning of the second Global Stocktake, which will conclude in 2028 at COP 33. This process provides an important opportunity to assess collective progress towards achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement.
South Africa believes that this assessment must look beyond reducing emissions alone.
It must properly assess the delivery of climate finance, technology transfer and development and capacity building to meet the needs of developing countries, whilst advancing their economic development and identifying ways to address the remaining gaps, including those related to loss and damage.
South Africa has experienced severe storms, flooding and drought, with significant impacts on agriculture, infrastructure, water resources, transport, tourism and livelihoods. Our agricultural communities, particularly vulnerable smallholder farmers, continue to face significant risks from prolonged drought and other climate-related disasters.
So adaptation remains a national priority for South Africa as well as a priority for the African continent.
We have committed to addressing vulnerabilities and building resilience in sectors prioritised in our 2nd Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC).
South Africa therefore supports continued work towards operationalising the Global Goal on Adaptation and the Belém adaptation indicators.
At COP31, we will advocate for the necessary technical work to improve the methodologies for operationalizing these indicators, including the establishment of a balanced technical task force, that reflects the diverse circumstances and challenges of different regions.
For Africa, a continent that contributes less than 4% of global greenhouse gas emissions, the priority is adaptation and building resilience.
Sustainable development and efforts to eradicate poverty are of outmost importance, so the widening adaptation finance gap should be addressed as a matter of priority.
South Africa advocates for the development of the benchmark for the tripling of adaptation finance by 2035, as well as setting up a process for monitoring the achievement of this target, to be established at COP 31.
The issue of loss and damage is equally important. The Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage is now operational, while the Santiago Network is providing technical assistance to developing countries.
The Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage must translate into accessible and adequate support for communities and countries experiencing climate-related loss and damage.
The fund has received over 170 proposals from developing countries to address losses and damages estimated at over 1.4 billion USD, while the fund has only about 450 million USD available.
Pledges and contributions must meet the scale of needs into the fund.
In this regard, as South Africa, we submitted a USD 20 million proposal for the restoration of Kruger National Park and associated conservation landscapes, following the January 2026 floods.
On mitigation, we remain committed to contributing our fair share to reduce greenhouse emissions through implementation of the Climate Change Act.
South Africa will continue to support the implementation of ambitious climate action while recognising the nationally determined nature of NDCs.
The continuation of the Sharm el-Sheikh Mitigation Ambition and Implementation Work Programme beyond 2026 will be an important issue at COP31.
South Africa supports strengthening this work programme in a manner that improves access to finance and implementation support, particularly for developing countries.
The work programme should not be used to impose new targets or goals on developing countries outside the nationally determined framework of the Paris Agreement. Ambition should be considered, firstly in the context of historical responsibility, and on equity as well as the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities.
We are in the process of developing sectoral emission targets, which will be legally-binding greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction targets assigned to key sectors such as energy, transport, agriculture, mining, industry, human settlements and the environment.
We are also implementing the Climate Change Act, which complements other policy measures such as the Integrated Resources Plan, the Just Transition Framework, the Green Transport Strategy, the Waste Management Strategy and the Green Hydrogen Commercialisation Strategy, amongst others.
We have also started tracking progress of the implementation of our NDC through Biennial Transparency Reports (BTR) under the Paris agreement and we are on track to meet our targets, as reported in our 1st BTR.
We will be submitting the 2nd BTR in December 2026, which will report on progress in the implementation of our 2025 and 2030 NDC targets for the period from 2023 to 2024.
The Enhanced Transparency Framework remains the backbone of the Paris Agreement, providing key inputs through BTRs into the Global Stoctake. Developing countries require predictable and sufficient support to build sustainable institutional capacity and reporting systems.
Furthermore, we remain concerned about the proliferation of unilateral climate change measures that are increasingly distorting normal international trade, thereby exerting profound negative impacts on the ability of developing countries to participate in higher-value, lower-carbon industries and limiting market access into developed countries markets.
South Africa and other developing countries have taken comprehensive steps to decarbonize their economies and will continue to do so, but our ability to implement and comply with these measures requires additional financial and capacity support.
A just transition remains central to South Africa’s approach to climate action.
South Africa’s transition must address climate change while also responding to our national development priorities, including poverty, inequality, unemployment.
South Africa will support the continuation of the Work Programme and the operationalisation of a Just Transition Mechanism that will strengthen international cooperation and mobilise support for implementation.
The Mechanism must be grounded in the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities and should adopt a whole-of-economy and whole-of-society approach.
The mechanism must have a strong international cooperation function and facilitate opportunities for workers, communities, small and medium-sized enterprises, entrepreneurs and local economies in developing countries.
Climate finance remains one of the most important issues for developing countries.
The declining availability of international public finance is increasingly reflected in reduced replenishments of multilateral climate funds, and broader reductions in official development assistance (ODA).
We need to recognize the significant and widening gap between the scale of finance required to deliver climate action and the resources currently available to developing countries.
This is particularly concerning given the pressures facing the multilateral climate finance architecture, including the lower Global Environment Facility (GEF-9) replenishment.
The New Collective Quantified Goal on Climate Finance called for efforts to at least triple annual outflows from the operating entities of the Financial Mechanism from 2022 levels by 2030. This ambition must be matched by an adequate climate finance resource base.
We therefore need ambitious and predictable replenishments of the Green Climate Fund and the Global Environment Facility.
We also need to see more contributions made to the Adaptation Fund.
It is imperative for an agreement to be reached on transitioning the Adaptation Fund to enable it to receive and manage the share of proceeds from the mechanism to contribute to the mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions and support sustainable development.
COP31 should also provide clear political direction to the Climate Finance Work Programme (CFWP) and ensure that it delivers practical outcomes on the implementation of assistance for developing countries.
We welcome the inclusion of the Climate Finance Work Programme in the CMA 8 provisional agenda, in order for Parties to discuss the barriers to the provision of finance and identify measures to improve its scale, quality, concessionally, affordability, accessibility and predictability.
In closing, as we prepare for COP31, South Africa will continue to work constructively with partners across negotiating groups to advance a multilateral climate response that is fair, equitable and responsive to the needs of developing countries.
Our approach will continue to be guided by science, equity, sustainable development and the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities.
The success of South Africa’s engagement at COP31 will depend not only on how effective we are at advancing our national position in the international climate change negotiations, but also on the quality of the consultation and coordination that informs those positions here at home.
This is why today’s consultation is so important.
We want to hear from you.
We want to understand the priorities, concerns and opportunities from different sectors of South African society.
We want to ensure that our negotiating positions are informed by the realities facing our businesses, industries, unions, communities, researchers and other stakeholders.
Your inputs will help strengthen South Africa’s preparations for COP31 and ensure that our engagement internationally remains firmly grounded in our national circumstances and development priorities.
We also urge all those going to COP 31 to contribute to advancing the global climate agenda from commitments towards implementation.
United in our diversity, we can work together to transition South Africa into a lower carbon industrialized economy, with resilient communities and cities, a place we can all proudly call home for our children and future generations.
Thank you all for attending this important consultation meeting.
For media enquiries, please contact:
Kerry Mauchline
Spokesperson to the Minister
E-mail: KMauchline@dffe.gov.za
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