Excellencies, Heads
of State and Government
Madame President, Colleagues
I would like to express
my appreciation and gratitude to the Government
and people of Mexico for the warm hospitality
since the moment we arrived in this beautiful
city of Cancun, and for the excellent arrangements
and facilities.
Let me also join other
delegations in commending the leadership
you and your team have demonstrated in managing
this process and preparing Parties to seek
convergence even on the most difficult issues.
Climate change is one
of the greatest challenges facing humanity,
a challenge that compounds the existing
multiple challenges already facing developing
countries, such as drought, flooding, famine
and disease. Here in these negotiation halls,
it is us who have to make the unenviable
decision of whether the global climate regime
will be a multilaterally agreed and ambitious
legally binding outcome, under the two track
negotiating framework of the Bali Roadmap,
OR whether it will simply be a regime where
nations do whatever they can, whenever it
is possible, with whoever they choose.
I am confident that
in the remaining 12 hours of work we will
make the right choice. Here in Cancun we
must lay a firm foundation and the building
blocks for a multi-laterally agreed climate
change regime that is fair, inclusive and
effective and that keeps the temperature
rise to well below 2 degrees Celsius above
pre-industrial levels. In fact more recent
science indicates that 1.5 degrees is the
safe limit.
There are also short
term issues that we believe must be finalised
here, namely on adaptation, fast start finance,
technology transfer, capacity building and
REDD plus. The greatest legacy we can bestow
on the planet and future generations is
to honour the objectives, principles and
provisions of the Convention, the Kyoto
Protocol, and the Bali Roadmap.
We must leave Cancun
having agreed on overarching decisions on
the legal form of the eventual outcome of
negotiations under the Convention and the
continued negotiation of a 2nd Commitment
Period under the Kyoto Protocol. We must
decide here in Cancún that the Kyoto
Protocol HAS a future. We dare not delay.
We must step forward
towards a multilateral climate change regime
that strikes a balance between climate and
development imperatives, and that ensures
an equal balance of emphasis on adaptation
and mitigation. Let me put this clearly
– adaptation MUST be the heart of the agreement.
In the longer term and
as agreed in Bali, the most effective and
politically acceptable way for the future
international climate change regime to urgently
deliver on these requirements is through
an amendment to the Kyoto Protocol to establish
a 2nd Commitment Period, with a comparable
legally binding agreement under the Convention.
The amendment to Annex
B of the Kyoto Protocol would bind high
levels of mitigation ambition by developed
countries in accordance with the science.
The legally binding agreement under the
Convention would firstly bind an ambitious,
absolute and comparable economy wide mitigation
commitment for countries that are NOT party
to the Kyoto Protocol.
Secondly it would give
developing countries the necessary time
and resources to develop while simultaneously
contributing to the global effort through
relative mitigation action.
Thirdly it must provide
an international legal framework for adaptation
to the inevitable impacts of climate change,
and for the necessary financial and technology
support for developing country adaptation
and mitigation efforts.
Here, at the threshold
of the next crucial stage of our collective
and urgent battle against climate change,
we must demonstrate bold and courageous
leadership. To unlock the urgent progress
that is needed, developed countries must
take the lead with ambitious, binding and
absolute emission reduction commitments.
And developing countries
will contribute their fair share through
mitigation action that is supported by finance
and technology, and both must be measured,
reported and verified.
Madame President, in
Africa, climate change will severely affect
food and water security and the livelihoods
of people in developing countries. It will
especially have an impact on the lives of
women, youth and the disabled.
It will undermine the
development and poverty eradication gains
that we have made, and that we seek to achieve
in the future. Without agreement on an international
framework to enable and support the implementation
of large scale adaptation programmes at
all levels in developing countries, we are
condemning these countries to a perilous
future.
Madame President, in
Copenhagen South Africa announced its intention
to reduce emissions by 34% below our business
as usual levels by 2020, and 42% by 2025.
This is immensely challenging given our
historical dependence on a coal based energy
supply. We recognise that our development
and poverty eradication priorities cannot
be separated from transitioning to a green
and climate resilient economy.
We are actively working
towards cleaner and renewable energy sources,
energy efficiency, and building adaptation
into our sustainable development and poverty
eradication priorities. It is in that context
that we are developing a Green Economy Strategy
and we have a completed a National Climate
Change Response Policy that is currently
out for public comment. A carbon tax that
would put a price on carbon and affect consumer
and producer behaviour is under discussion.
Between now and 2012,
we are piloting several alternative technologies
such Concentrated Solar Power in the Northern
Cape looking at achieving a capacity of
1,100 MW, scaling up to 5,000 MW by 2020.
There are several other potential areas
in wind energy with potential of scaling
up to 10,000 MW. In transportation we are
looking at innovative transport systems
in rail, and up-scaling the South African
electric vehicle, the Joule.
However, all these require
technological and financial support in the
order of billions of dollars. While we require
the developed world to meet its obligation
under the Convention and Bali Roadmap to
support the mitigation and adaptation efforts
of developing countries, we are not just
sitting back and waiting. Our national development
finance institutions have taken up the challenge
and are committed to mobilising finance
at a national level. However we need the
developed world to support these efforts
by meeting their financial obligations.
My delegation would
like to see a success here in Cancun, that
provides a firm foundation of further work
to take place in Durban next year.
I look forward to welcoming
you to Durban.
I thank you
