Negotiations on an effective climate regime must be concluded by 2009, Environmental Affairs and Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk told a high-level meeting on climate change at the United Nations in New York on Monday.
”The science is clear. Climate change is a fact, and delaying climate action will hit poor countries and communities hardest,” he said.
With the scientific and economic case so clearly made, agreement has to be reached by the end of 2009 on ”a fair, effective, flexible and inclusive framework that builds on the existing climate regime”.
Achieving a balance between climate stabilisation and sustainable development is essentially in the hands of developed countries, the minister said.
”The trigger to strengthen the regime must come from the north. Full participation by the world’s largest historical emitter, the United States, is a prerequisite,” he said.
Women and children are particularly vulnerable to the devastating effects of climate change. ”For South Africa, the mainstreaming of gender and youth in climate policy, decision-making and implementation, is therefore a cross-cutting priority,” Van Schalkwyk said.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon had opened the summit on Monday by warning the world’s response to the global warming crisis ”will define us, our era, and ultimately the global legacy we leave for future generations”.
The exceptional one-day summit gathers about 150 nations, about 80 of them at the level of head of state and government. It is entitled The Future in Our Hands: Addressing the Leadership Challenge of Climate Change.
It aims to break the deadlock in efforts to deepen cuts in emissions of greenhouse gases, which trap heat from the sun and are inflicting damaging change to the Earth’s climate system.
”The time for doubt has passed,” said Ban, noting the grim fourth assessment on climate change by the UN’s top scientific panel this year.
”If we do not act now, the impact of climate change will be devastating,” he said. ”We have affordable measures and technologies to begin addressing the problem right now. What we do not have is time.”
Ban said that, if as scientists have indicated, global emissions are to peak within the next 10 to 15 years to keep warming to a tolerable level, ”all sectors will need to be engaged”, at the political level, by business, technology and finance.
He said a December 3 to 14 UN conference on global warming in Bali, Indonesia, has to set the stage for a comprehensive agreement for deepening and accelerating action from 2012, when the first phase of the Kyoto Protocol runs out. ”Our goal must be nothing short of a real breakthrough in Bali,” he declared.
Industrialised countries should show ”enhanced leadership” on reducing their own emissions, and developing countries should have incentives to tackle their own pollution, ”but without sacrificing economic growth or poverty reduction”, said Ban.
In addition, developing countries bearing the brunt of climate change need ”significantly increased support” for coping with the threat.
Bali ”will succeed or fail based on the strength of the leadership displayed by the people in this hall”, said Ban. ”We hold the future in our hands. Together, we must ensure that our grandchildren will not have to ask why we failed to do the right thing, and left them to suffer the consequences.” — Sapa, AFP