Africa’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, South Africa, this week unveiled plans for a research and development strategy to address climate change at a national conference in Midrand.
But, although South Africa’s Department of Science and Technology says the strategy will help the country produce locally relevant findings on climate change that can feed into national policies, some local scientists were unimpressed with the conference.
They argue that the government — already accused of being ”anti-science” by HIV/Aids researchers — is more interested in publicity.
Rob Adam, the Director General of Science and Technology, said the strategy will be finalised after scientists have provided their input. Research priorities identified so far include climate modelling, long-term monitoring of climate change, and studies of its effects on society and the environment.
Adam warned that poor countries will come under increasing political pressure to reduce their greenhouse-gas emissions. Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism Marthinus van Schalkwyk, however, told Reuters news agency that United States demands for poverty-stricken countries to do so are ”much too early”.
”But while we put pressure on the developed world, we must put our own house in order,” said Van Schalkwyk.
In a letter published by the Cape Times, Philip Lloyd, of the University of Cape Town, said ”there is something seriously wrong with the meeting. It does not represent the climate change debate in South Africa.”
He said that government organisers snubbed invited scientists — including himself — when they offered to share their research.
Lloyd, who recently co-wrote a report for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), said he noticed no input from the South African government when the IPCC’s working group on climate-change mitigation met in Canada last month. — SciDev.Net