South Africa is keeping its options open about a new climate-change framework proposed by the United States last week. The government said this week it would look at the US’s proposal, but that it respected the current round of United Nations negotiations on the subject.
‘It is something that South Africa will study,†President Thabo Mbeki’s office said.
Announcing the framework, US President George W Bush said South Africa had a critical role to play in brokering a new long-term plan to combat climate change, and invited South Africa to be among about 15 key nations that would debate such a plan. The new proposed framework is seen as an alternative to the UN-led Kyoto Protocol on reducing emissions, which the US refuses to sign. South Africa is seen as a dealmaker between the developing and developed world.
Bush’s announcement came days before this week’s G8 summit on climate change in Germany, which was attended by the ‘plus five†states: South Africa, China, India, Brazil and Mexico.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair, fresh from his visit to South Africa, was enthusiastic about Bush’s announcement and said it was a first sign that the US was ready to take part in international agreements to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases.
‘I think the announcement by President Bush last week was significant and important and it is absurd to say otherwise, since it moved things on,†Blair told The Guardian newspaper. ‘On the other hand you then need to flesh out what it means.â€
But Brazil, another member of the ‘plus five†contingent, which has a good working relationship with the US, rejected Bush’s proposals for parallel global negotiations to the Kyoto Protocol.
Instead Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva insisted that countries reach an agreement under the Kyoto framework and not under a new US-led framework.
‘The Brazilian position is clear cut,†Lula told British reporters this week. ‘I cannot accept the idea that we have to build another group to discuss the same issues that were discussed in Kyoto and not fulfilled.â€
Meanwhile, environmentalists have dismissed Bush’s announcement as mere repositioning. ‘We don’t believe anything has changed,†said Richard Worthington, coordinator of the South African Climate Action Network. Worthington added that Blair seems to have been suckered by Bush’s latest statement, saying that it is largely a re-packaging of previous positions aimed at ensuring that negotiations on a post-2012 climate regime take place on US terms.
‘The latest statement is another example of the Bush administration’s rejection of multilateral processes and insistence on dictating the terms of any engagement with the rest of the world, even on this most pressing of global issues,†he said.
Worthington was worried that Blair might have used his visit to South Africa to convince Mbeki to accept Bush’s newest proposal. During his visit Blair talked extensively about climate change and a special adviser from Environment Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk’s office also met Blair on two occasions.
Ian McCartney, United Kingdom Minister of State for Trade, Investment and Foreign Affairs, told the Mail & Guardian on a visit to South Africa this week that the country played an important role in building bridges between the different nations.
‘We see South Africa as a key player on climate change with an important and influential role in international discussion,†he said. ‘South Africa comes to the table with real ideas and has worked hard to promote cooperation between developed and developing countries to combat climate change.â€
He said Mbeki made important contributions to the Gleneagles discussions on climate change in 2005. McCartney said the US had moved ‘light years†away from where it was five years ago on the issue of climate change, which he attributed to internal political pressure the Bush administration faced. He believed that Bush’s turnaround was a genuine move forward and not merely window dressing.
‘Electors are not stupid,†he said. ‘They will know whether the new policies are making a difference. No government can dress up their policies.â€
He said negotiations on an emissions reduction framework that will succeed the Kyoto Protocol needed to accommodate different national circumstances, while achieving necessary global emissions reductions.
‘It will need to be flexible, rather than one size fits all, and accommodate different national strategies by allowing different types of commitments,†McCartney explained. ‘It will need to include the key emitters and emerging economies and involve some level of binding, but differentiated commitments.â€
Asked whether South Africa was doing enough to combat climate change, McCartney shrugged, and questioned whether any country in the world was doing enough to combat climate change.