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Speech
Embargo: 14:00 on Tuesday 10 June 2008
Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism
FELLOW MINISTERS FROM AFRICA,
UNEP EXECUTIVE SECRETARY, ACHIM STEINER
DISTINGUISED GUESTS
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN
South Africa is privileged to host the 12th Session of AMCEN and is honoured to be assuming the Presidency of AMCEN for the following two years. We look forward to amplifying AMCEN as the authorative voice for the environment of the African continent. It is with a great sense of the responsibility and pride that we accept this important task.
AMCEN has a long and illustrious history dating back to 1983, when at the request of its African members, the UNEP Governing Council invited the governments of Africa to convene an African Environment Conference to discuss regional environmental priorities and to identify common problems.
In assuming the Presidency of AMCEN, South Africa will strive to continue with the outstanding work that AMCEN is renowned for across the continent. I look forward to working with you by not only taking on the ambitious task of harmonising environmental policies and programmes across the continent, but also by jointly promoting our common positions in the increasingly complex multilateral environmental negotiations.
During our Presidency of AMCEN, South Africa will seek to strengthen and support the implementation of the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation (JPoI) across the African Continent. It is in this very venue of the Sandton Convention Centre that the global community gathered under the slogan “people, planet, prosperity” to participate in the World Summit on Sustainable Development more than five years ago. It is also here where the WSSD gave birth to the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation (JPoI). At that time we recognized that poverty and global inequality were the greatest threats to sustainable development. It is this very challenge that faces us today in the face of even greater threats of climate change and environmental degradation.
AMCEN, together with other African institutions like the AU, should continue to spear-head efforts to manage and protect Africa’s environmental resources. These include the enhanced implementation of the Action Plan for the Environment Initiative of NEPAD.
In terms of the challenges of International Environmental Governance to which I referred to in my address earlier this afternoon, South Africa is under no illusion of the extent of the work that requires our attention. We are, however, optimistic and confident that the 12th Session of AMCEN will provide the necessary opportunity for us to collectively explore and engage on these issues so as to develop a shared vision and galvanize a common and mutually beneficial position that we can take forward in the multilateral arena.
It is in particular in the climate change negotiations that Africa would need to stand together over the next two years. Our message is that Africa will not be divided and will be well-prepared for these negotiations.
As outlined in the Bali Roadmap, we have agreed that 2009 will be the end date for our negotiations to strengthen the climate regime. These intensified negotiations will place immense pressure on African negotiators. We must ensure that they are empowered to effectively participate in, and represent our common interests.
What is required is intensified work by African climate experts and negotiators to prepare an African common position that we could adopt at a Special AMCEN Session on climate change in mid-2009, with a view to also presenting it to the Heads of State and Government at the 13th AU Summit in 2009.
I am also determined that we should without delay launch a process that will lead to the formulation of a comprehensive Framework of African Climate Change Programmes. This framework should address the critical need to integrate existing and future climate change initiatives and programmes under a consolidated framework, thereby ensuring greater coordination and coherence in the implementation and review of climate change initiatives and sustainable development plans in Africa. This Framework should be ready for adoption when we meet next year.
Together, the African Common Position and the Framework of African Climate Change Programmes will constitute a firm foundation as we prepare for the important climate negotiations to conclude in Copenhagen in December 2009.
Chair, in my welcoming address I focused on the adaptation needs of Africa. I would now like to refer to mitigation, and specifically an area of work in the climate sphere where we need to increase our efforts, namely the Clean Development Mechanism. There is a rapidly closing window for the first commitment period under Kyoto. During the next commitment periods under the Kyoto Protocol the potential of the carbon market to contribute to low carbon growth and sustainable development will grow by orders of magnitude. If all developed countries took on much more stringent emissions reduction targets, aiming for cuts of 60% to 80% below 1990 levels by 2050, and if they purchased half of their reductions in the developing world at a carbon price of at least $10 per ton, then financial flows to developing countries could gradually grow to $100 billion per year by mid-century.
We in Africa have much to do to position ourselves to take advantage of these opportunities. Capturing even a modest share of these financial opportunities could make all the difference in the choice between fossil-fuel energy and more expensive renewable energy sources. But then the international conditions must be in place.
In this respect we need to improve the Clean Development Mechanism, and ensure a more equitable geographic spread of CDM projects. More ambitious mid-term targets for emission cuts by all developed countries, towards the upper end of the range of 25% to 40% below 1990 levels by 2020, would be critical to stimulate demand in the carbon market. The development of large scale CDM projects is important. Yet, many economies in Africa, where energy, transport, construction or industrial sectors are in earlier stages of development, have relatively small mitigation potentials. We must therefore also find ways to seize the opportunities that exist by developing methodologies for appropriate small scale mitigation projects, simple in structure and finance, but with high contributions to sustainable development.
The Nairobi Framework, announced by the UN Secretary General in November 2006, has outlined important steps to be taken to address the capacity challenge in Africa. While recognising that some efforts in this regard are already underway, these now need to be scaled up.
Chair, as South Africa assumes the Chair of AMCEN at this 12th Session, our commitment is to strengthen AMCEN as the key African Ministerial Forum to lead policy dialogues and improve co-ordination in the environmental sphere. Our message for this gathering is that we are ready to assist in shaping and building a cohesive African environmental agenda. We look forward to doing so by working closely with all our colleagues and partners on the continent.
I thank you.
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