2005-11-23,+van+Schalkwyk,+Climate+Change,+ANC+Today


 * ANC Today, Volume 5, No. 42 • 21—27 October 2005**

= A new approach to climate change for the developing world =

IF THERE IS ONE GLOBAL TRUTH rapidly emerging from the chaos of our changing weather patterns, it is that no nation, no community and no person can rest assured of their security.

One of the staggering facts about the recent devastation of Hurricane Katrina in the United States of America is the estimated cost of the recovery and rebuilding efforts. The conservative estimate is that America will spend more than $200 billion. Compare this with the situation of the South Pacific Island nation of Tuvalu, which averages an altitude of only one meter above sea level. The leaders of Tuvalu have estimated that, should sea levels continue to rise at current rates due to global warming, their country will be largely under water within 50 years. While Tuvalu is one of the nations of the world most at risk from climate change, it is also among the least able to adapt or prepare for it - with a total gross domestic product of less than $13 million. That is about 17,000 times less than the costs to America of Katrina's devastation.

This example is instructive because it brings home the point that the nations most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change - and South Africa is one of them - are also the ones least able to afford the added risks. The least developed countries, especially in Africa and the Small Island Developing States, cannot bear the brunt of these costs. What is needed, as a next step, in addition to the other policies and measures under discussion within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and under the Kyoto Protocol, is global commitment and mechanisms to provide new and additional finance, capacity and technology, sourced primarily from developed countries, to assist affected countries and populations to cope with the consequences of climate change.

The first meeting of the parties to the Kyoto Protocol, following its coming into force, will be held in Montreal in November this year. The meeting will also mark the opening of talks about post-2012 commitments for the developed countries bound by Kyoto. It is important for developing countries like India, China, Brazil and South Africa to acknowledge that we have a duty to do more to address climate change.

The South African government fully supports the fundamental premise of the UNFCCC - that all countries must take responsibility. In doing so we emphasise the agreement that developed countries, who bear most responsibility for causing climate change and who have the resources, must take the lead in implementing solutions. We believe that our own commitments may take a different form to those of developed nations. Our message is that we stand ready to do more to de-carbonise our development, but that we will expect, from developed countries, a commitment to take the lead on deeper emission reductions, new and additional financial support, improved technology transfer and capacity building. When we engage on climate change at the international level, we will work to shift the current bias from a focus primarily on mitigation, to one which gives substantial content and resources to adaptation measures.

Any future commitments for developing countries must be consistent with their capabilities, their sustainable development objectives, and take into account the current structure of their economies. Such commitments must ultimately map out a proactive, sustainable and equitable growth path which meets our objectives to eradicate poverty while at the same addressing climate change. To assist South Africa in preparing for such commitments, Cabinet has approved a process of scenario-planning which will, within the next year, formulate and examine future scenarios to proactively shape our longer term domestic policy and capacity-building.

Our government has made a choice - to be guided by the overwhelming weight of scientific evidence that indicates climate change is intensifying and that human activity is contributing to the problem. We must mitigate against climate change and adapt our economies to enable communities to face the reality of changing weather patterns.

In terms of the international response, our first choice is clearly the multi-lateral approach - but we recognise that partnerships can also add value - as long as they don't undermine that approach. We must work to build a more inclusive international regime that addresses a broad spectrum of concrete global actions in addition to the Kyoto mechanisms which will also bring major developed country emitters like the United States and Australia on board.

In our efforts to address climate change from within South Africa - limited as our total contribution to global emissions may be - our first choice as government will always be to work with communities and business in a cooperative partnership, especially in implementing our multilateral obligations. The agreement signed recently with Business Unity South Africa (BUSA), to bring about voluntary Greenhouse Gas emission reporting as part of a national inventory, is a powerful example of such cooperation.

In the area of electricity generation, for instance, Eskom announced at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) the aspiration to reduce the percentage of coal in our energy mix by 10% by 2012 - an ambitious but critical goal. The challenge is to shift even more significantly from our current levels of 92% coal dependence for electricity. While significant shifts in this direction will require major domestic and international commitment and investment to achieve, it is precisely this kind of aspiration that we should be discussing in our deliberations.

Partnership and voluntary action alone may not be sufficient however. We must also open the dialogue about how best to use existing legislation in support of our climate change responses. The new Air Quality Act, for instance, provides a number of tools that have been designed to assist us in improving the atmospheric health of our nation. Options such as the designation of controlled emitters, controlled fuels and priority pollutants must be examined in the climate change context if we are to give the force of law to our climate change response strategy.


 * Marthinus van Schalkwyk is an ANC Member of Parliament and Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism. This is an edited version of a speech at the National Consultative Conference on Climate Change, 18 October 2005.

From: http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/anctoday/2005/at42.htm#art2