We agreed that climate change is a reality. This gathering reflects Government’s commitment and determination to act on climate change and to shape policy informed by the best-available science. In opening the Conference, our Deputy President, the Hon. Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka took the lead. She affirmed that South Africa will accept its responsibility to address climate change and will mobilise different economic sectors to meet this challenge. This South Africa will do in line with our strategy for accelerated and equitable growth and sustainable job creation and poverty alleviation.

The Conference gave a platform to eminent scientists and policy makers who outlined the present and likely impacts of climate change on South Africa. These include increases in the distribution and intensity of drought; reduced agricultural crop yields impacting on food security; potential species extinction; increased growth rates of invasive species; potentially catastrophic coral bleaching; and an increase in the areas affected by vector-borne diseases, including malaria. In all of these circumstances it is the poor who will be worst affected.

The Conference agreed that climate change is one of the most significant threats to sustainable development across the globe. Human activity contributes to climate change. This highlights the urgency of stabilising concentrations of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere - the ultimate objective of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. All nations should join in support of the international effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, with developed countries taking stronger action. The time for countries like South Africa to take further action on the basis of differentiated responsibility is here. We would like to see the emergence after 2012 of a strengthened Kyoto or Kyoto-plus regime that is more inclusive, flexible, cooperative and environmentally effective. In addition, the issue of adaptation needs to become a more prominent global priority in the climate regime.

Our government’s firm commitment to climate action was voiced by Ministers with portfolios of Environment, Minerals and Energy, Water and Forestry, Land and Agriculture, and Science and Technology. The Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism called for a world-wide climate change awareness campaign to demystify and mainstream climate change, urging the need to make the link, in the minds of ordinary people around the world, between their actions and climate change. The Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs called for the promotion of food security in the face of the climate change threat. The Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry stressed how crucial water management will be in adapting to climate change impacts. The Minister of Science and Technology stressed the importance of a National Climate Change Research and Development Strategy as a key instrument to channel our efforts. The Minister of Minerals and Energy launched our Designated National Authority which will realize the potential of the Clean Development Mechanism and actively promote CDM projects in South Africa.

We, the representatives of government, business, the scientific and academic communities, and civil society present at this conference agree that our country must accelerate its national response as well as reinforce efforts in the international arena. We affirm that our climate change response is located within a sustainable development paradigm.

From a science and technology perspective, the broadening and deepening of our knowledge base on climate change is core to this accelerated response. This includes prediction, scenarios, early warning systems, disaster management, as well as adaptation and mitigation interventions for South Africa in particular and Africa in general. We agree to intensify efforts to use the best available science to address adaptive and mitigation actions in a coordinated manner. We commit our country to develop a critical mass of climate scientists to help grapple with the dynamics of climate change. We urge scientific institutions to put place measures to entice young scientists into this specialist field. We encourage emerging scientists to exploit the opportunities presented to them through available programmes. We affirm that the nature of climate change and the issues associated with it lends itself to the need for a multi-disciplinary approach to research and development.

As representatives from government, business and civil society, we resolve to take urgent action to meet our shared challenges in order to guarantee our common future. The following statements of intent by the key constituencies present at the conference demonstrate our common resolve to action and to mainstreaming climate change considerations in all our respective spheres of activity.
The undertakings by government to the following activities constitute the foundation of a Midrand Plan of Action that will lead our country’s climate change programme into the future:

Ensure the alignment, cohesion and coherence of government responses to climate change by coordinating and driving its climate change responses and interventions through the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Climate Change, its associated Inter-Departmental Committee and the multi-stakeholder National Committee on Climate Change;

Continue the review of the National Climate Change Response Strategy;

Initiate a detailed scenario building process to map out how South Africa can meet its Article 2 commitment to greenhouse gas stabilisation whilst ensuring its focus on poverty alleviation and job creation;

Initiate a participatory climate change policy development process;

Use the Air Quality Act to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and encourage a move to cleaner production, including the setting of emission standards that encourage energy efficiency;

Compile sectoral action plans to implement the National Climate Change Response Strategy;
Initiate a participatory national climate change research and development strategy development process that would coordinate and focus current research in a manner that delivers the critical mass of multi-disciplinary knowledge in focus areas while creating the opportunity to develop and retain human capital and research infrastructure;

Drive increased research and innovation for the hydrogen economy using the research chairs programme and provide early demonstration of technologies for 2010;

Strengthen the South African Environmental Observation Network (SAEON) to facilitate long term climate research and establish a coordinating mechanism and establish a coordinating mechanism for South Africa’s investment in earth observation as well as provide an interface with the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS);

Establish South African National Energy Research Institute (SANERI);

Develop a technology needs assessment to frame a programme of action for technology transfer;

Facilitate the development of clean technologies for climate change mitigation;

Actively support the strengthening of the CDM, particularly a streamlined methodology review process and mechanisms to reduce transactions costs for smaller, bundled projects, during the upcoming COP/MOP in Montreal in November 2005, without reopening the Marrakech Accords;
Welcomes Eskom’s re-statement of its commitment to displacing 10% of its coal-fired generating capacity with alternative sources by 2012 and its commitment to further reductions beyond 2012;

Ensure that renewable energy and energy efficiency are included as viable alternatives to conventional fossil fuels in government’s integrated energy planning process;

Explore new funding sources and mechanism to support the rollout of renewable energy;
Establish the National Energy Efficiency Agency to coordinate public and private investment in energy efficiency;

Consider climate change impacts in its water conservation and demand management initiatives;

Review and reassess the ways in which South Africa operates its dams and quantifies the Ecological Reserve to account for a changing climate;

Review the details of water-sharing agreements in the light of new physical realities;

Examine the design and implementation of the water allocation reform process to ensure that climate change considerations are taken into account;

Design and implement an outreach strategy to create awareness of the implications of climate change among stakeholders and customers in the water sector;

Ensure that climate change considerations are included in the evaluation of new agricultural research and development projects;

Review and revise agricultural policy to ensure climate change resilience; and

Ensure that climate change is fully considered and reflected in the four elements of agricultural early warning systems, including: prior risk knowledge; monitoring and warning services; dissemination of warnings/information; and response capacity.
Furthermore the attached statements by our scientists, NGOs and business community demonstrate our collective resolve as a country to Climate Action Now!