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Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs Edna Molewa. Picture: Sizwe Ndingane

Durban - KwaZulu-Natal is ready to host the upcoming 17th UN Climate Change Conference, Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa said in Durban on Tuesday.

She was briefing reporters after talks with the provincial executive and the civil society secretariat responsible for mobilising civil society in the run-up the meeting, to be held from November 28 to December 9.

Between 20,000 and 25,000 people were expected to visit Durban during the conference at the Inkosi Albert Luthuli convention centre.

Representatives of 194 governments were expected at the event, officially called the 17th Conference of Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP17/CMP7).

Talks would centre on finding solutions to global warming.

Molewa said the government believed South Africa and developing countries’ interests should not be compromised during the conference. The KwaZulu-Natal government had also assured her it would rally behind the national climate change policy, which was still in a draft form.

Provincial summits would be held in Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Free State, Western Cape, Limpopo and Mpumalanga to allow provinces to contribute to the draft policy.

Molewa said it had been agreed during Tuesday's talks to scale up the greening legacy projects mooted for COP17. They included small players in areas such as tourism. Bed-and-breakfast outlets and small and medium-sized enterprises were expected to benefit from the conference because there were no major restrictions on the country's hosting of the event, she said.

“This conference is unlike the Soccer World Cup where there were major restrictions. We need to make sure that people benefit from this.”

Molewa said the national treasury recently allocated R105-million for conference projects such as greening and cleaning of coastal areas. - Sapa

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