Two days past deadline, COP17 draws to close

South Africa's foreign minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane smiles prior to speaking at a rally as the climate conference.

South Africa's foreign minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane smiles prior to speaking at a rally as the climate conference.

Published Dec 11, 2011

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Johannesburg - Minister of international relations Maite Nkoana-Mashabane expressed satisfaction with the outcomes reached by the 17th United Nations Conference of Parties (Cop17) early on Sunday morning.

“Our intention with the Indaba was to restore trust in the multilateral system and to enshrined transparency and inclusively within our Party driven process,” she said in a speech planned for delivery in Durban.

Nkoana-Mashabane thanked the delegates for the hard work and effort made throughout the conference - which was scheduled to end on Friday - and praised the progress made on several key issues during her closing remarks made at 5.10am.

The talks ran into overtime and her speech on Sunday morning marked the end of the 14 days of deliberation.

An amendment to the Kyoto Protocol, decisions regarding life-cycle assessment, the implementation of the Green Climate Fund and the future of the climate change regime were among the resolutions reached.

The talks yielded a roadmap aimed at enforcing a legal framework to enforce carbon emission cuts from major greenhouse gas emitters.

French news agency AFP reported that should this framework be approved in 2015, it would be enforced by 2020.

The next Conference of Parties (Cop18) would be chaired and hosted by Qatar between November 26 and December 8 next year. - Sapa

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