09 December 2010
Your Excellency
President Felipe Calderon,
Media professionals,
I wish to take the opportunity
to thank you for inviting us to to Cancun.
We are delighted to
be here to during the 16th Conference of
the Parties to the United Nations Framework
on Climate Change, as well as to have discussions
that are focused on deepening the relations
between South Africa and Mexico.
We congratulate Mexico
on the excellent arrangements and hospitality
extended to all delegates attending this
very important Conference.
South Africa and Mexico
enjoy strong bilateral relations. Since
the inauguration of our inaugural Bi-national
Commission in April this year, the partnership
between our two countries has deepened.
An important element
of the BNC is to deepen economic relations
between our two countries.
Mexico is South Africa’s
third largest trading partner in Latin America
after Brazil and Argentina, whilst South
Africa is Mexico’s largest trading partner
in Africa.
Trade between our two countries has been
growing at a steady pace since the early
11000s after Mexico lifted its ban on trade
with South Africa, which had been instituted
to support our struggle for liberation.
We thank you for that solidarity.
We will work harder
on our side to further strengthen investment
and trade relations between Mexico and South
Africa.
Mr President,
I was honoured with
your presence earlier this year on 11 June,
when you attended the 2010 FIFA Soccer World
Cup opening ceremony in Johannesburg.
That memorable match
between the Mexican and South African Teams
set the tone and pace for what was to become
Africa’s first football World Cup.
We were particularly
pleased with Mexico’s performance and also
the attendance of scores of Mexican supporters
who travelled the long distance to our shores.
This proved the potential
for deeper bilateral relations between our
two countries, including people-to- people
linkages especially through tourism.
South Africa and Mexico
also cooperate in the international arena,
and Mexico has strong relations with Africa,
and has observer status at the African Union.
You addressed the AU
Summit held in Uganda earlier this year,
Mr President, which indicates this country’s
relationship with the continent.
In this way Mexico will
keep in touch with developments in the African
continent and is able to become a good partner
in many international forums.
We were pleased with
South Africa’s election earlier this year
to serve as a non-permanent member on the
United Nations Security Council from 2011
to 2012.
We thank Mexico for
support and also acknowledge the work done
by Mexico the past two years as a member
on the UN Security Council.
We also work together
in other forums including the G20 which
we regard as a critical forum for the world
to discuss socio-economic and challenges
facing us at this time.
The effectiveness of
the G20 and the fruitfulness of our participation
as the developing world, will depend on
the extent to which it is able to implement
all the decisions reached at previous Summits.
There are some development
issues that were considered in the G8 context
that remain unresolved. The G20 could consider
an appropriate manner to take these forward.
We seriously want to
see the G20 finalising the outstanding decisions
before taking on too many new issues. We
will also urge a greater focus by the G20
on the development needs of low income countries
and Africa.
These are some of the
issues we will want to engage on with Mexico
as part of our cooperation in the multilateral
arena.
Today, I also wish to
congratulate Mexico on the celebration this
year of its Bicentennial of Independence
and 100 years of the Mexican Revolution.
The government and people
of South Africa wish to donate a rock art
painting to the government and people of
Mexico in commemoration of this historic
event.
We trust that this token
that represents our history of rock art,
which will be delivered through diplomatic
channels, will find a suitable place among
Mexico’s rich and colourful cultural treasures.
Mr President,
We find our presence
in the city of Cancun invaluable as we prepare
to host the 17th Conference of the Parties
to the United Nations Framework Convention
on Climate Change in Durban next year.
We dare not lose this
opportunity in Cancun as the world, to secure
consensus and progress on the implementation
of climate action from now up to 2012.
We also need to establish
the building blocks for the longer term
negotiation of the future legally binding
outcome.
Cancun presents a crossroads
for Africa and the international community.
It is a critical opportunity
to build confidence and momentum towards
a multilaterally agreed legally binding
outcome, which is an inclusive, fair and
effective global climate change regime.
In Durban next year
we will build on the achievements of Cancun
and I look forward to welcoming you in South
Africa!
Thank you for fruitful
bilateral talks and for hosting us in this
beautiful city.
I thank you.
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STATEMENT BY THE MINISTER
OF WATER AND ENVIRONMENTAL AFFAIRS, MS MOLEWA
ON THE OUTCOMES OF THE CLIMATE CHANGE TALKS
HELD IN MEXICO IN DECEMBER 2010 AND PREPARATION
FOR THE CLIMATE CHANGE TALKS TO BE HELD
IN DURBAN IN DECEMBER 2011
South Africa would like
to congratulate the government and the people
of Mexico for having hosted a successful
16th Conference of Parties to the United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change (UNFCCC) and the 6th Meeting of Parties
to the Kyoto Protocol. These climate change
conferences were held from the 29th November
to 10th December in Cancun, Mexico.
The Mexican COP presidency’s
guided a transparent process run in accordance
with United Nations rules that built confidence
and established an atmosphere of trust and
cooperation. This is an important achievement
and lays a solid basis for South Africa
as the incoming President of the UNFCCC.
At the talks, South
Africa, along with most other developing
countries in Africa, among Small Island
States and Least Developed Countries, called
for a two-track legally binding outcome;
where on the one hand, a track where developed
countries who joined the Kyoto Protocol
agree to a 2nd Commitment Period under the
Protocol.
Whilst, on the other
hand, a second track where developed countries
who did not join the Kyoto Protocol, will
take comparable commitments under the Convention
with the collective effort of all developed
countries adding up to a level of ambition
required by science (a 25-40% aggregate
reduction from 11000 levels by 2020).
Under this second track,
developing countries would also contribute
to the global solution to the climate crisis,
where their climate action will be provided
with finance, technology and capacity building
support. While some progress was achieved
in relation to how developed country mitigation
targets are reflected, in Cancun there was
no agreement on a second commitment period
for the Kyoto Protocol.
Further negotiations
on this matter will be forwarded for decision
to the Climate Change Conference in Durban
next year.
Never the less, the
adoption of the Cancun agreement was a extraordinary
achievement which has preserved the possibility
for a two-track legally binding outcome.
Firstly, developed countries agreed to continue
work on a 2nd commitment period under the
Kyoto Protocol.
While secondly, all
countries agreed to list their commitments
or actions, together with an outline of
the major building blocks for a future multi-lateral
climate change regime. All credit must go
to the Minister Espinosa as the Mexican
COP President for her great leadership and
her ability to build consensus between nations
with vastly differing positions.
The Cancun Climate Change
Conferences delivered a remarkably detailed
outcome covering all the main elements of
the two-track outcome as agreed to in the
2007 Bali Road Map mandate. In this regard,
COP 16 has reinvigorated the multilateral
process by reflecting the political will
of the international community to seriously
and urgently address the climate change
crisis. The Cancun agreement is formulated
as a set of decisions under both the Convention
and its’ Kyoto Protocol.
In summary, the Cancun
agreement decisions have 3 types of outcomes:
• Firstly, capturing
and reflecting agreement that has been reached
in the negotiations since the 2007 Bali
Climate Change Conferences, including: the
establishment of Global Climate Fund; agreement
on a Cancun Adaptation framework and Adaptation
Committee; the establishment of a technology
mechanism; and in relation to mitigation
an agreement on the way in which the pledges
made in Copenhagen last year should be further
elaborated for both developed and developing
countries and the establishment of a registry
to match mitigation actions with financial,
technology and capacity building support,
• Secondly, where necessary,
the Cancun decisions set up a process to
elaborate the governance and operational
modalities and or procedures of the agreed
building blocks; such as the process needed
to flesh out the details of how the Green
Climate Fund or the Adaptation Committee
would be governed and operate..
• Thirdly, for elements
that do not yet have full agreement among
Parties, to forward these for further work
to either the negotiating Ad-Hoc Working
Groups or the other Subsidiary Bodies of
the UNFCCC.
Despite the above progress,
the Cancun outcome was not able to answer
many difficult political questions and these
have been forwarded to the COP17/CMP7 Climate
Change Conference in Durban, South Africa
for further work. Most obviously, Cancun
was unable to address the politically difficult
question of the legal form of the final
outcome of the negotiations in the Ad Hoc
Working Group on Long Term Cooperation (AWG
LCA) under the Convention, which then calls
into question whether or not it will be
possible to reach an agreement on the second
track of a Second Commitment Period under
the Kyoto Protocol.
South Africa has an
immense amount of work to do in order to
move forward from Cancun to Durban. Our
challenge is to address the unresolved issues
while at the same time ensuring that the
agreements made in Cancun are further developed
and elaborated. It was heartening to note
the way that the Mexican government and
people used the opportunity of the climate
change conference process as a means to
showcase their country and the work they
are doing.
We also intend to showcase
our country and the work we are doing on
climate change and sustainable development
more broadly, when we host the COP17/CMP7
Climate Change Conference in Durban, in
December next year. To this end, starting
in January, Government will launch a comprehensive
consultation programme that will include
all stakeholders and will develop a shared
vision for the Durban Climate Change Conference
and a work programme that will ensure our
hosting will be a truly “Team South Africa”
occasion.
ISSUED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL
AFFAIRS ON 15 DECEMBER 2010
