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Speech
Embargo: 14:00 on Tuesday 10 June 2008
WELCOME SPEECH BY MARTHINUS VAN SCHALKWYK, SOUTH AFRICAN MINISTER OF ENVIRONMENTAL AFFAIRS AND TOURISM, AT THE OPENING OF THE 12th SESSION OF THE AFRICAN MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE ON THE ENVIRONMENT (AMCEN), SANDTON CONVENTION CENTRE, JOHANNESBURG, TUESDAY 10 JUNE 2008
FELLOW MINISTERS FROM AFRICA,
UNEP EXECUTIVE SECRETARY, ACHIM STEINER
DISTINGUISED GUESTS
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN
On behalf of South Africa, I am delighted to welcome you here in Johannesburg for the 12th Session of the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment. It is indeed no coincidence that the 12th Session is held during World Environment month when, across the globe, we celebrate the environment and reflect on what the environment means for us in terms of our material, natural and spiritual well-being.
As the world population increases so too does the demands for water, energy and food resources. These pressures are exacerbated by natural disasters, extreme poverty and resource deprivation, as well as human induced-climate change. These trends, as evidenced by the sobering daily newspaper reports about droughts, escalating food and oil prices, and human tragedy, all place new demands on the way we manage the environment.
Our task as Environment Ministers is to provide the leadership that will convert public will into political will, and political will into action and implementation. Over the last decade, we have taken important steps forward. These include mainstreaming and integrating environmental concerns in other areas of work in our respective governments and developing new scientific and policy capacities. Despite these achievements, there are also signs of a stagnating and fragmented global regime for the environment and sustainable development. The proliferation of environmental agreements, funds and entities calls for greater coordination and significantly up-scaled resources. It also calls for the further strengthening of AMCEN’s voice and strategic leadership in the debate on international environmental governance. Africa should increasingly be driving these debates, thereby ensuring that our concerns and interests are at the forefront of United Nations environmental reform.
Some immediate challenges, which have particular relevance to our policy dialogue tomorrow, include the building of a strong political base for international environmental governance (IEG); improving coherence and coordination between different UN agencies and bodies; eliminating the fragmentation of implementation, scientific work and policy development; and addressing the huge resource gap that has led to discrepancies between commitments and actions.
Let me share with you a few ideas that I personally believe is worth further consideration:
- Firstly, to establish UNEP as the authoritative voice§ on environment and the chief advisor on environmental policy in the UN system it might be an opportune time to create an Office of the Chief Scientist at UNEP. Such an office could play an important facilitation role, act as a repository for new research, assess new information and make it accessible and digestible to policy makers. It could also steer the efforts towards rationalizing the science-based decision-making in relation to multi-lateral environmental agreements (MEA’s).
- Secondly, to ensure local level implementation and§ compliance with MEA’s, we need serious and properly resourced efforts to implement the Bali Strategic Plan for Technology Support and Capacity-Building.
- And thirdly, I believe UNEP should be requested to§ lead an audit of how much money for the environment is flowing through the UN system, the adequacy of funding, what it is used for and how it is aligned, whether there are equitable distribution to recipients, whether there are any obstacles or conditionalities that unnecessarily hinders access, and, finally, whether we are fully exploiting the synergies and co-benefits of environmental and developmental funding.
Chair, the overriding challenge is to provide our people with a better life and to eradicate the scourge of hunger and poverty. It is therefore appropriate that climate change is a key focus of this meeting.
Africa is one of the regions least responsible for climate change, and is also least able to afford the costs of adaptation. Africa will remain vulnerable even if, globally, emissions peak and decline in the next 10 to 15 years. No agreement on the strengthening of the international climate architecture, when we meet in Copenhagen at the end of 2009, will be considered balanced if adaptation is not accorded much higher priority in our deliberations.
The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reconfirmed that Africa is one of the most vulnerable continents to climate variability and change because of multiple stresses and low adaptive capacity. Some of the identified impacts for Africa are:
- Agricultural§ production, including access to food, in many African countries and regions is projected to be severely compromised.
- Local food supplies are also§ projected to be negatively affected by decreasing fisheries resources in large lakes, which may be exacerbated by continued over-fishing.
- Regional changes in the distribution and production of particular fish species are also expected.
Critical to assisting African countries to building more resilient economies and societies as well as to “leapfrog” to low carbon growth and development, would be a more empowering framework that will enable effective capacity building, technology transfer and financing.
Chair, I know that this meeting will demonstrate that African Environment Ministers are providing leadership in safeguarding the environment for future generations, and meeting the multi-faceted challenges posed by climate change.
I look forward to our deliberations over the next three days, to the meaningful outcomes that will emerge from this 12th Session, as well as ever closer cooperation within the continent in the years to come.
Colleagues, I thank you and salute you for your efforts and leadership as the champions of the environment on the African continent.
I thank you.
For further information on AMCEN access the link below:
http://www.unep.org/roa/Amcen/Amcen_Events/12th_Session_AMCEN/index.asp
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