Cape Town – International Relations and Cooperation Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane says South Africa will aim for a fair deal at the upcoming COP17 climate change conference in Durban.<\/p>\n
About 20 000 delegates from around the world are expected to gather in Durban in less than three weeks’ time for a meeting which is being hosted on South African soil for the first time.<\/p>\n
SA is the third African country to host the conference after Morocco, which hosted COP17 in Marrakech in 2001 and Kenya, which hosted COP12 in Nairobi in 2006.<\/p>\n
Nkoana-Mashabane assured MPs in the National Assembly on Wednesday that South Africa was ready for the event, both as party to the negotiations as well as host of the conference.<\/p>\n
Water and Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa is expected to lead the SA negotiating team at the meeting.<\/p>\n
Nkoana-Mashabane said there were two “competing visions” which should come out of the conference.<\/p>\n
One of them was to “limit Durban’s focus” to the implementation of what came out of COP16 (the Cancun Agreements) last year in Mexico.<\/p>\n
Among the objectives of the Cancun Agreements was to mobilise and provide scaled-up funds in the short and long term to enable developing countries to take greater and effective action against climate change.<\/p>\n
The other vision was to “focus on both the Cancun Agreements and the finalisation of the matters still outstanding from the Bali Roadmap”.<\/p>\n
The Bali Roadmap of 2007 consisted of a number of forward-looking decisions meant to reach a secure climate future.<\/p>\n
Nkoana-Mashabane outlined the continent’s stance ahead of the all-important conference.<\/p>\n
“Africa has singled out adaptation as a key highlight of what should come [out] of Durban. Therefore, in Durban, we will have to work hard to close the gap among the parties on these key issues.”<\/p>\n
She said that the outcome in Durban should also be balanced, fair and credible, preserving and strengthening the “multilateral rules based response to climate change”.<\/p>\n
As the incoming COP President, the minister said South Africa undertook a number of informal consultations to further prepare parties for the conference.<\/p>\n
Some of the preparations included hosting the Informal Ministerial Meeting in Pretoria between 5 and 9 September.<\/p>\n
Other events included the Leader’s Dialogue, which took place in New York on 20 September and the Inter-Sessional Meeting in Panama between 1 and 7 October as well as the Pre-COP Ministerial consultations in Stellenbosch on 20 and 21 October.<\/p>\n
Nkoana-Mashabane said that Inkosi Albert Luthuli International Convention Centre would be the official venue for the conference.<\/p>\n
Hotel accommodation arrangements for the visitors as well as transport and security plans were at an advanced stage.<\/p>\n
All accredited delegates would enjoy free entry visa, she said, highlighting that the official website for the COP17 had also gone live. – Francis Hweshe, BuaNews<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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