Honourable Premier, Cde Zweli Mkhize
Honourable Members of the Executive Council
Honourable Members of Provincial Legislature
Mayor of Ethekwini Metro, and Councillors
Distinguished guests,
Representatives of Civil Society and Community organisations
Ladies and gentlemen
In just two months from now, we will re-converge here to negotiate hope for a world where the impact of climate change is dealt with by all of us who possess the will and capability to do so.
It will be here at the Inkosi Albert Luthuli Convention Centre (ICC) that delegates from all folk and landscape will gather for the 17th Conference of Parties (COP17) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
As we gather, the world will watch and wait, hoping but confident, that Durban will deliver a new global deal and multilateral compact to address the impacts and causes of climate change.
Honourable Premier, your province and this venue, is no stranger to international events, so I guess that together with the wonderful weather of Durban, this ICC will once again deliver an outcome, to keep the Kyoto Protocol alive, as well as a renewed commitment and action to operationalise the UNFCCC, when we gather in December.
It was in this same venue, in 2003, that we gathered for the fifth World Parks Congress under the theme – Benefits without Boundaries and elected my predecessor, Cde Valli Moosa, the first African President of the (International Union of the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
Prior to that, we hosted the World AIDS Conference, World Conference on Racism and recently the Congress of International Olympics Committee, to mention but a few – so I am confident that if called upon you can host any event of whatever international magnitude.
I am saying all this from the on-set so that we can focus on what will be at stake here in Durban in December, and understand that as a country, beyond being a host we are party to the negotiations representing our interests and those of the developing South.
If we do not act against climate change, and also ensure that the parties reach agreements that will take us a step forward in the reduction of global carbon emissions, our development is at stake, our economy is at stake, our pristine beaches are at stake and our future is at stake – That is what COP 17 is about.
It is therefore a great honour to be with you, about our country’s response to climate change and the road to Durban and beyond.
As South Africa and South Africans, we approach COP17 with three possible achievements in mind:
- The development, compilation, approval and lobbying of the South African COP17 negotiating position that will be approved by Cabinet before 27 October this year
- The coordination and implementation of projects that reduce or offset the impacts of COP17 and leave a lasting legacy
- The Public Climate Change Outreach and Mobilisation Programme that is aimed at engaging aswidely with all South Africans being a common resolve of Working Together to Save tomorrow today.
I therefore see this summit contributing to each of these three areas of work:
Firstly, we want South Africans to say together with government; yes we can reduce our carbon emissions, and still continue to achieve the development targets and needs.
It is my belief that as we gather in Durban later in November – December, we must not negotiate for South Africans, but negotiate together with them, we must without an inch of doubt, know that we carry their will, and their commitment to work together to save tomorrow today.
Secondly, we also want to come out of the COP, saying that we have demonstrated our commitment, the will and capacity of our country and our people as well as corporates to lead a change revolution, against climate change.
Thirdly, whatever the outcome of the COP 17 is, we must rest with the knowledge that as a country, we insisted on what was the right thing to do, and we spoke for the poor, the underdeveloped and for the women, the workers and our youth.
We do this because we are alive to the fact that climate change poses a threat to our efforts to achieve our socio-economic development priorities, whilst it also presents an opportunity to transit towards a green economy.
It is important for all of us to work together in order to ensure that we arm all our communities with requisite information that they will need to make the right decisions.
We are here in this state of high levels of carbon emissions today because over the past 150 years, there has been a vast increase in the use of fossil fuels – oil and coal, and the harvesting of wood from forests.
The effects of climate change are real and are here with us. As a developing country, we call on the developed world to ensure that they heed the call made by the developing countries and the small State Islands who feel the brunt of climate change effects more.
This call is for the developed countries to increase their commitments toward carbon emission reductions, while at the same time help the developing countries with the necessary resources that would enable carbon emission reduction action.
Ladies and gentlemen, South Africa is in the final stages of submitting the second National Communication to the United Nations, and this document does not only reflect our greenhouse gas emissions profile, but the latest science on our country’s vulnerability to impacts of climate change.
The latest scientific reports tells us that our country will become drier in the west and wetter in the east, accompanied by an increase in the frequency of severe weather events, such as drought, tornadoes, floods, and other natural disasters.
As far back as 2007, we published the full mitigation potential of our country, recognising the responsibility we have as an energy intensive economy.
This study - the Long term Mitigation Scenarios study or LTMS - also informed our policy development process as it identified not only the emission profile of various sectors, but potential areas in which we can reduce our emissions.
Ladies and gentlemen it is in our understanding of these realities, not only related to our country, but the African continent as a whole that we seek a globally fair regime on climate change.
Ladies and gentlemen, in our climate change negotiations to be held here in Durban, we have the difficult task of ensuring that the international negotiations stay on track, and that we continue pursuing a global solution to the climate change challenge that nations of the world face.
South Africa seeks a global regime that ensures that climate change does not reach dangerous levels, whilst recognising that the priority for developing countries is to address poverty and socio-economic development.
We also have to ensure that we continue working towards the clarification of the legal form of the envisaged binding legal outcomes, recognising that a global regime depends on making progress on aspects we reached agreement on in Cancun during COP16.
We need to ensure that the Bali roadmap is implemented; we also need to ensure that there is comparability of effort amongst developed countries, and that there is transparency of emission reduction actions of developing countries.
Ladies and gentlemen, climate change is arguably the biggest threat facing humankind in this century. What is important though is that we have the opportunity and burden to make the right choices today for future generations.
It is from this perspective that we say developed countries should lead in emission reductions whilst developing countries do their fair share with the necessary support in terms of finance, technology and capacity building from developed countries.
If we appreciate that climate change unfairly affects the poor more, as they do not have the means to respond to shocks from natural disasters, it is imperative that we build resilience and ability of our communities to deal with changes in climate.
Our climate change response Expo, which will be people’s space for engaging with the COP17, will be a showcase of climate change revolution in the making.
The Expo is a platform for South Africans who, due to limitations associated with United Nations conferences and its processes, can participate and showcase climate change mitigation and adaptation activities and challenges.
Provision has been made for government, business, civil society, academia, labour and media to have dedicated space.
It is meant for showcasing initiatives such as provincial climate change strategies and the building of climate change responses as local government in delivering basic services and infrastructure.
I challenge the provincial leadership to also take the message to all corners of this province.
Honourable Premier, when I met with you and your executive, you raised the issue of the magnitude and impact of our legacy project
I am told that officials are now hard at work in scaling up the legacy and greening projects, and that both you and I will be able to sign off on extra projects in Green Transport, Infrastructure and Climate Change Education which we should be able to announce soon.
We believe that by working together with all our communities, we can save tomorrow today.
I thank you!
Enquiries:
Blessing Manale
Cell: 083 677 1630
Moses Rannditsheni
Cell: 082 448 2450
