REUTERS

Scouts participate in a Greenpeace workshop in Durban earlier this month. The scouts were learning about renewable energy and were preparing two trailers equipped with solar panels and a wind turbine, which would be used to educate young people ahead of the 17th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

The successful delivery of the 17th Conference of the Parties of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP17) from November 28 to December 9 is one of the main issues that is at the centre of the government’s key deliverables for 2011/12.

This is, in part, influenced by our hosting of the climate talks in Durban, but also by the centrality that climate change has acquired as an urgent and immediate threat to the way of life as we know it.

We have all witnessed the acute changes in weather patterns across the globe.

Internationally, we have witnessed severe floods in Pakistan and the devastating power of the tsunami in Japan.

Here in Africa, we have seen the helplessness of humanity when confronted by nature’s destructive power as seen in Somalia, where our government, in partnership with the Gift of the Givers, continues to play an instrumental role in alleviating the challenges facing that country. We have also seen the changing weather patterns affecting Nigeria and Benin, where floods have wreaked havoc.

In South Africa, we have experienced some of the coldest winters on record throughout the country, including changing rainfall patterns in the Eastern Cape.

These climatic challenges certainly have an impact on our way of life and on our ability to feed our societies.

As the incoming Conference of the Parties (COP) president, my role is to lead the world in forging a consensus in terms of reversing these adverse effects of climate change.

By hosting these talks, South Africa hopes to uphold rules-based multilateralism as one of our fundamental interests which we aspire to globally.

Accordingly, South Africa will endeavour to uphold the consensus nature of decision-making that has characterised the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and its Conference(s) of the Parties, since 1995.

In this regard, South Africa, in co-operation with the parties to the climate change convention, will seek to facilitate an outcome which is fair, transparent, inclusive and upholds the convention’s principle of common, but differentiated, responsibilities and capabilities.

The negotiations in Durban will be a party-driven process, with South Africa playing an enabling role for parties to find agreement on issues of climate change.

South Africa will not seek to impose a solution of its own, as the convention is governed by its own processes and rules of procedure, which we think are important to observe, since this strengthens multilateralism and the legitimacy of the process.

It is important to note that one of our critical responsibi-lities is to ensure that the trust that was restored in Cancun does not suffer a second disconnect among parties, as evidenced in the Copenhagen negotiations.

As the parties prepare to meet in Durban, there is an urgent need for all to approach the Durban negotiations with an element of maturity as the outcomes of the Cancun negotiations, although laudable, unfortunately did not address all the issues.

To generate the requisite momentum towards an acceptable outcome in Durban, in my capacity as the incoming COP president, I have since the beginning of this year begun high-level consultations with stakeholders, including at recent meetings of the ad hoc working group(s) in Panama City, Panama.

We continue to welcome to our shores various climate change envoys, who visit our country to share their views and possible outcomes of the climate talks.

I was heartened by the attitude of the parties and various climate change groupings in Panama. They have indicated in unequivocal terms their overarching interest of making Durban a success.

As we approach the talks, I am confident that we will be able to deliver a fair, credible, and balanced outcome, which is the overall interest of all parties.

Local government structures, in particular eThekwini, have proved to be worthy partners in our hosting of the climate talks.

The host city has worked hand-in-hand with our logistical team and has been instrumental in terms of pioneering some of the projects that seek to minimise the carbon footprint of the convention, the greening projects within the city, and the creation and mobilisation of communities on issues of climate change.

However, it is my strong view that the reduction of the carbon footprint, the implementation of greening projects and the creation and mobilisation of communities on issues of climate change should not be limited to Durban, but should concern all of us.

There is a compelling need for all of us to harness the knowledge garnered in our hosting of these climate change talks and share it in our communities.

Most importantly, we need to impress on all our communities the threat climate change poses to our world and articulate the need to adapt and mitigate the ill-effects of climate change in our country.

The success of the Durban climate talks will be measured in terms of the following:

* That there is consensus on the position that the Can- cun agreements must be opera-tionalised, including the estab-lishment of the mechanisms and institutional arrangements agreed to in Cancun.

Here the Green Climate Fund represents the centrepiece of a broader set of outcomes for Durban. Developing countries demand a prompt start for the fund through its early and initial capitalisation.

* For Durban to be successful, we have to do more than making the Cancun agreements operational.

We have no option but to deal with the outstanding political issues remaining from the Bali road map.

This means finding a resolution to the issue of the second commitment period under the Kyoto protocol and agreeing on the legal nature of a future climate change system.

* Adaptation is an essential element of the outcome in Durban because it is a key priority for many developing countries, particularly small island developing states, least developed countries and Africa.

The current fragmented approach to adaptation must be addressed in a more coherent manner and it must give equal priority to adaptation and mitigation.

* This is an edited version of Minister Nkoana-Mashabane’s speech at the SA Mayors’ Conference on Climate Change in preparation for the talks.