Pretoria - South Africa is geared up and ready for the upcoming climate change Conference Of Parties 21 (COP21) conference, which is the largest platform for the discussion of environmental matters in which more than 40 000 participants will take part later this year.
The conference will be held in France at the end of November.
Chief among anticipated achievements is the drawing up of a new international agreement on climate change, which will lead to the maintenance of global warming below 2°C.
“South Africa has shown its intention to involve itself fully in all efforts to move to the use of clean energy,” said ambassador Laurence Tubiana, the special representative of the French government on climate change.
Tubiana is also the ambassador at negotiations at the COP 21.
In a meeting she held with government officials involved in climate change earlier this year, she said intentions to participate in the global movement to preserve the environment were on track.
Tubiana was in the country this week, and among a wide range of issues she discussed during a session with the media at French ambassador to South Africa Elisabeth Barber’s residence, were the emerging diseases caused by the changes in climates and the various sources of energy available for use.
“The situation is totally different from one country to the other,” she said, but the aim – to reduce emissions across the world – was the common goal.
The use of cleaner energy was the underlying responsibility of all countries, she said. Coal, which is still widely used in this country, was the uncleanest source of energy.
“Nuclear is clean, but very expensive because of the risks involved,” Tubiana said.
And while solar was also a good alternative and one that was not so expensive, wind, she said, was the best: “Wind is cheaper and most cost-effective.”
Wind turbines produce cleaner energy and are good for the environment.
A key lesson learnt by South Africa, as it worked with partners on climate change, was the need to enshrine climate action in national policies, Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa said.
She told a meeting on climate change at the end of last year that South Africa’s policy represented a vision for an effective climate change response and for the long term transition to a climate resilient and lower carbon economy and society.
Tubiana explained that, while many factors had contributed to climate change over the years, most of it could be attributed to humans.
“All of this is the result of environmental changes in the past 50 years, and 99 percent can be blamed on humans,” she said.
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Pretoria News