State of Readiness for Climate Change COP 17
South Africa is ready to join over 190 parties at the 17th Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), taking place from November 28th to December 9th 2011 in Durban. COP17 is particularly important because it will be the last Conference of the Parties before the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012. It will address the concerns of how the international community will proceed post-Kyoto. The primary objective of the conference is to reach agreement on how to effectively tackle climate change at the global level in a fair manner, and in this way to address the threat it poses to human development and economic growth.
Climate change is arguably the biggest challenge facing humankind, and the foremost threat to sustainable development, economic growth, and quality of life. The development strides achieved by the African continent and the developed world in the last decade are at risk from the effects of climate change. A global response presents an opportunity for all to further sustainable development objectives. South Africa recognizes that the success of COP17 is dependent on whether a balance can be struck among four existing agreements: the Kyoto Protocol; the Bali Action Plan, agreed at COP 13 in 2007, the Copenhagen Accord of 2009 and the Cancun Agreements, reached at COP 16 last December. This balance must be the achieved between operationalizing the Cancun goal to limit average global temperature warming below 2˚C in comparison to the pre-industrial level, and supporting sustainable development in developing countries through mechanisms dubbed the Bali Stategic Plans on Capacity Building and Technology Support that have not yet been finalized. In addition, balance must be achieved between the global emission targets and a sovereign country’s right to development; an issue which remains unresolved since the Cancun negotiations.
The COP17 will seek a comprehensive advancement of all elements that will comprise the future climate change regime including processes to clarify the legal form of such a regime under the Convention. This book chapter , co-authored by Prof. Maria Ivanova and UNFCCC Secretary-General Christiana Figueres in the run-up to the 2002 Johannesburg Summit, explores the challenges inherent to environmental governance and provides insight into the issues that will be addressed at COP17.
South Africa, Africa’s largest economy and a voice for the developing world, hopes to succeed in keeping the Kyoto Protocol as part of a future climate regime. The outcome of COP17 must ensure that all countries acknowledge the effects of climate change on the planet, its impact on people and economies, and that responsible international leadership is essential to this process.
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