UN Conference on Climate Change opens in Durban

"Africa lacks resources to tackle climate change"

UN Conference on Climate Change (COP17) opens in Durban
Collins Atohengbe and Ugonma Cokey, Durban

South African President, Jacob Zuma has asked delegates at the United Nations Conference on Climate Change to do all that will make COP17 a success because of the danger climate change poses to humanity; especially small island nations and developing countries in Africa and South America.

Declaring the conference open on Monday, President Zuma said Durban 2011 must take the world forward towards saving tomorrow today because the world can no longer afford to ignore issues of climate change but must seek a holistic solution that would give humanity some respite.

Challenges

Zuma said, apart from the problems which small island nations like Kiribati are faced with, scarce grazing land arising from incessant drought has caused conflicts amongst communities which had lived peacefully with each other in Sudan.
The South African leader said the same condition had worsened the political crises in Somali with a devastating effect on Kenya, which is laboring under a large influx of refugees.

President Zuma said Africa’s vulnerability was not limited to severe impact from climate change but its inability to cope with inadequate resources to meet the challenges of climate change.

He urged the delegates to endeavour to reach balanced, fair and credible agreements by working on the progress made at COP16 in Cancun, Mexico in 2010, and the legal frameworks of the Kyoto agreements, because solving climate issues cannot be separated from the fight against poverty.

The Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Christiana Figueres, South Africa’s Minister of International relations and Cooperation and the President elect of COP 17/CMP 7 Ms Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, and the President of Niger, Mahamadou Issoufou, also stressed the need for the legal issues of the Kyoto Protocol, the Green fund and a second commitment to be addressed.

Christiana Figueres said this would “reassure the vulnerable that tangible action is being taken for a safe future both in adaptation and mitigation”

The Durban conference commonly known as COP 17 is the second to be held in Africa.

The first, COP12, was held in Nairobi Kenya in 2006.

The COP 17/CMP 7 brings together representatives of all Parties as well as international organizations and civil society to discuss a comprehensive agenda that follows the Bali Action Plan agreed at COP 13 and the Cancun Decisions in COP 16.

This is the seventh stakeholders’ talks since the Kyoto protocols on reduction of carbon emission were signed.

Williams/Ekata