warming
Gustav Thiel
South Africa is one of the worlds worst- prepared countries to face the challenge to reduce global greenhouse emissions, environmentalists warn.
International environmental authorities meet in Japan in December to decide on the future regulation of greenhouse emissions. Decisions taken at the third United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference of Parties could have far- reaching implications for the economies of participants and for future global weather patterns.
South Africa narrowly avoided being confined to observer status by being the last country to officially ratify the convention, in August.
A recent newsletter of the National Committee on Climate Change said ratification of the convention by Parliament has been delayed because there has been no consensus about the process to be followed … and subsequently developing a national policy.
A source at the Department of Environment Affairs and Tourism said this week it was a miracle that ratification of the convention was achieved. He described South Africas environmental policy as chaotic, and predicted that the country would become one of the major contributors to global greenhouse emissions in the next century.
He added that the department regarded a sound environmental policy as secondary to the more immediate challenges facing the country. This, he said, could have disastrous consequences for the future economic viability of South Africa because reducing greenhouse emissions would become unbearably expensive in the next century.
South Africa is responsible for about 1,6% of greenhouse emissions the largest source of emissions in Africa and the 18th largest in the world.
Scientists predict that global temperatures could increase by more than 3,5 C in the next century, which will then alter global weather patterns enough to submerge certain islands completely.