News | Climate Change

http://www.timeslive.co.za/lifestyle/article856763.ece/Heated-debate-for-Durban

The Seventeenth Conference of the Parties (COP 17) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change will be held in Durban in December.

Executive secretary Christiana Figueres said nations had to follow up their UN Climate Change Conference in Cancun, Mexico, last year with higher global emission cuts and the rapid launch of new institutions and funds to show the world that a new era of international co-operation on climate change is an established fact.
"Cancun was a big step, bigger than many imagined might be possible. But the time has come for all of us to exceed our own expectations because nothing less will do," Figueres said.
As one of the continents most vulnerable to climate change, Africa has much to gain from taking a strong stance. "Unlike Mexico, which is part of the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development, South Africa has developing-country status," says RomyChevallier, researcher and project co-ordinator at the South African Institute of International Affairs.
The Durban conference would be the organisation's first in Africa and its first in a big emerging economy, so different priorities would be pushed on the agenda.
"South Africa represents the voice of Africa and so will need to push the African agenda. Unlike Australia, for example, which has buffer systems in place, climate change will affect the most vulnerable people on the African continent in terms of things like lack of rainfall. Africa has relatively no buffer systems in place to help with disaster relief, food security, water security and malaria," said Chevallier.
"For a country like South Africa, whose priorities are poverty alleviation and job creation, the challenge of reducing emissions while retaining competitiveness remains daunting. However, we recognise that exports will also be affected if we do not take note of international realities, including the growing pressure for quantified commitments."
She said that giving priority to sustainable economic development while responding to climate change and sustainability had to be a combined approach.
"Mitigation is very much a challenge of making development more sustainable. However, the reverse is also true: sustainable development has the potential to contribute to mitigation.
"Governments have to agree to pay substantial initial costs for mitigation and adaptation programmes, with a view to long-term gains - no matter how unpopular these decisions seem to the poor.
"A climate focus will require leaders to look beyond electoral cycles and educate their communities, particularly those most vulnerable to climatic threats, to accept policy changes." .
This is difficult in a democracy where voters are not properly educated about the long-term effects of climate change on their lives in terms of concrete problems like food shortage and flooding or drought. It is these voters who ultimately have the final say.
The time is now, says Chevallier, to start looking at green growth strategies as the most acceptable way of going forward in Africa. "As a country, we need to consider what role we're going to play in the green movement."
South Africa will also be looking to other countries for financial assistance in developing a green economy.
Western and eastern European countries have been bigger polluters of the world and so therefore should bear a bigger financial burden in addressing climate change. This will be a focal issue at the conference in Durban.