PRETORIA/CAIRO: After hosting the 2010 FIFA World Cup, South Africa has proven that it has the capacity and infrastructure to host events of a large scale. Once again, the Rainbow Nation is setting out to be the center of world news — from football to climate change — as it prepares to host COP17 from Nov. 28 to Dec. 9 in Durban. Under the slogan “Working together, saving tomorrow today,” Durban will host the 17th Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The conference also convenes the 7th Session of the Conference of the Parties (CMP7) to the Kyoto Protocol. The next COP17/CMP7 presidency rotates to the host country, and will in turn be South African Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Maite Nkoana-Mashabane. Speaking to reporters on a media tour of South Africa in late September, Nkoana-Mashabane said, “Climate change is the most pressing challenge to sustainable development of our time … and the effects, which to a great extent are already inevitable, will most severely impact developing countries, most particularly [in Africa].” Africans think of this upcoming pivotal event as the “African COP” because, she added, “they have something to contribute, not to exclude other developing nations.” Durban is ready to welcome up to 30,000 delegates from 194 countries. Official delegations will be around 20,000 and an expected 10,000 more from NGOs and interested parties. Despite the current political challenges, Nkoana-Mashabane told Daily News Egypt that she is positive on the contribution of Egypt at COP17 and that there is coordination on the ministerial level. One of the main focuses of the conference will be prioritizing the Green Climate Fund, she explained, stressing the need for public finance committed through ODA to continue as well as the need for duality of funding from the private sector. The Green Climate Fund, which sources funding specific to adaptation, needs around $100 billion a year, which is difficult given the current global economic conditions. Still, Nkoana-Mashabane said, the undeniable need for swift action is highlighted by the “increasing frequency and intensity of natural disasters.” As incoming president of COP17, Nkoana-Mashabane is in consultations at various levels with concerned parties to “achieve the strategic objectives set for this important global event.” The climate change debate, which has moved from distant meeting rooms of the United Nations to the domestic political agendas, is both “complex and terminal,” she said, “lying at the intersection of development, environment, ecological systems, economics, finance, food and human security, human rights, property rights, religion, philosophy, etc.” As the need to adapt to these changes becomes increasingly inevitable, “emissions must be radically reduced to secure a relatively safe future for the next generation,” she added. Objectives Along with drawing out a path for climate financing and putting the Green Climate Fund into force, there are four main points of focus for COP17. Chief among them is maintaining the “integrity of the multilateral process under the UNFCCC by ensuring that the unresolved issues agreed to in Bali in 2007 are … brought back onto the main climate change agenda,” said Nkoana-Mashabane. Most contentious will be finding a solution “on the balance between the second commitment of the Kyoto Protocol and the comparable emissions reduction regime for the non-Kyoto parties.” Decisions made during COP16 in Cancun also need to be made operational and the agreed upon institutions need to be established, including the adaptation committee, the technology executive committee and the committee on finance. “Ensuring a process for concrete implementation of adaptation activities [is vital],” while recognizing that emissions reduction efforts need to come from both developing and developed countries. Karin Ireton, director of group sustainability management at Standard Bank of South Africa, said, “Political consensus has to be sufficient and sustainable.” African countries are considered some of the most vulnerable due to their topography and climate; at the same time, possessing minimal resources for adaptation. “South Africa will take a strong African stance to [influence] international governance,” said Ireton, so these nations can still develop and attract the necessary financial resources for adaptation. She said there needs to consensus on a second commitment from Kyoto '97, which would allow “developing nations to source funding from developed for resource changes … or at least keep negotiations open to do so.”
