http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/Content.aspx?id=142452

THE recent United Nations (UN) climate change talks in Bangkok are the latest step in the lengthy process of bringing the international community together to fight climate change. The talks agreed on a work programme for the coming months, and also helped to clarify the issues at stake in the next negotiation rounds and positions regarding a second commitment period for the Kyoto Protocol.

However heavy and complex the UN climate negotiations may seem, there is no option, in my view, but to pursue and invest in them. Business as usual is simply no longer an option.
This year’s United Nations Climate Change Conference will be held in December in Durban, shining the spotlight on SA’s role as a key player in the fight against climate change.
By hosting the Durban conference, SA has taken upon itself the challenging task of facilitating what surely must be the most important continuing global negotiations of our time. Their ultimate success will be the legacy we bequeath future generations. Quite simply, ensuring that our planet remains suitable for human habitation is what is at stake.
The European Union (EU) is ahead of schedule in its undertaking to cut greenhouse gas emissions by next year in line with the Kyoto Protocol commitments. For 2020, the EU has inscribed into law its target of cutting greenhouse gas emissions to 20% below their 1990 levels. We are also offering to increase this target to 30% on condition other major emitting countries in the developed and developing worlds commit to doing their fair share of a global effort.
The aim, as agreed at the Cancun climate conference last December, must be to keep average warming since pre- industrial times to less than 2° C. In the long term, the EU is committed to cutting its emissions to 80%-95% below their 1990 levels by 2050. In March, the European Commission issued its Roadmap for Moving to a Competitive Low-Carbon Economy in 2050, which has kick-started the debate on concrete options to achieve these reductions.
The EU is also strongly committed to financially supporting SA in its efforts to facilitate the transition to a green economy and fight climate change.
About R8,7bn worth of EU-funded green projects are being implemented or are about to be launched in SA. These include EU and member state projects, as well as initiatives financed through the European Investment Bank. The latter has positioned itself as the single largest financier in the fight against climate change, by providing R88bn outside the EU this year alone.
In SA such funds have, for example, made possible the Joint Africa-Europe Co- operation on Carbon Capture and Storage , a R4,2m project over two years. The project aims to strengthen EU-SA
co-operation in the field of clean coal technology and carbon capture and storage by focusing on capacity building, knowledge sharing and the implementation of carbon capture in SA.
SA has endorsed the Copenhagen Accord and was one of the countries that drafted it. In December 2009, SA announced a voluntary commitment to reduce emissions by 34% below business as usual levels by 2020 and by about 42% by 2025, conditional on financial and technological support. This position was recently endorsed by the Cabinet’s new electricity plan, the Integrated Resource Plan 2010.
We believe SA is well positioned to make a positive difference. While it is a major producer and consumer of nonrenewable energy, it is also forging ahead towards renewable energy and carbon emission reductions. Balancing the need for cheap energy with the need for sustainable and energy-efficient growth puts SA in a strong position to chair the global climate change negotiations.
This week the European Union celebrates its establishment 61 years ago — a continuing project that has at its heart peace, security and sustainable development. In striving to improve the lives of its own citizens, the EU has become a leading force for the improvement of living conditions around the globe. As a world leader in the fight against climate change, the EU clearly has an interest in seeing Durban move the global fight forward. I take this opportunity to express my full confidence in SA’s ability to make a success of this year’s climate change conference — the EU stands ready to do all it can to support SA in the challenging tasks that lie ahead.
• Van de Geer is the European Union ambassador to SA.