News | Energy Efficiency

http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/Content.aspx?id=140539

IN THE build-up to the United Nations (UN) climate change talks in Durban in December, SA needed to help push governments worldwide to make progress on several issues, Water and Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa said on Friday.

These includ ed financial aid for developing economies to lower their greenhouse gas emissions and to adapt to climate effects.
SA was working with current Conference of the Parties (COP) president Mexico to ensure that the Durban conference was as effective as possible, Ms Molewa said after a meeting in Johannesburg with Business Unity SA . Views were exchanged on key issues about climate change policy and the Durban meeting.
SA needed to help Mexico to ensure that as much work as possible on the agreements that came out of last year’s climate change negotiations in Cancun, Mexico, was done ahead of the Durban conference, she said.
As host of the 17th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, SA is under considerable pressure to oversee the negotiation of a legally binding agreement on how to mitigate against climate change as the Kyoto Protocol’s first commitment period nears its end next year .
The parties to the Cancun conference agreed to peak emissions and an overall 2° C target to limit temperature rise. They further agreed to enable assessments of what countries were doing to meet the promises they made at the 2009 COP in Copenhagen on how to tackle climate change and establish a green climate fund . They also agreed to "slow, halt and reverse" deforestation and set up the mechanisms to help developing countries get access to low carbon technology.
The parties to the Cancun talks agreed to put aside difficult issues such as specific emissions reductions targets and the "common but differentiated responsibilities" of developing and developed nations that have been continual hurdles to the elusive second binding agreement.
Business Unity SA vice- president Michael Spicer said business supported the targets SA set for itself at Copenhagen in 2009, but it felt it was important to underpin these targets with "detailed empirical work" on the goals’ effects on the economy, "company by company".
SA voluntarily announced at Copenhagen that it would act to reduce domestic greenhouse gas emissions by 34% by 2020 and 42% by 2025, subject to financial, technological and other support.
Government policies such as the New Growth Path and the Industrial Policy Action Plan 2 needed to be aligned with climate change goals, but also with targets for economic and employment growth, Mr Spicer said.
The Cabinet has until June to finalise SA’s position before the Durban COP. Ms Molewa said the talks would also be used to showcase steps SA had taken towards building a green economy.
In a separate media briefing on Friday, Greenpeace SA said a global, legally binding agreement was first prize for the Durban conference. But it knew this was a long shot and was hoping for a political agreement on a second commitment period for the Kyoto Protocol, and some progress on finance to help developing economies reduce carbon emissions.