The following report replaces item 1 under Committee Reports – National assembly and National Council of Provinces, published in the Announcements Tablings and Committee Reports dated 30 June 2011 on page 2283:
REPORT OF THE PARLIAMENTARY DELEGATION TO THE 16TH CONFERENCE OF THE PARTIES’ MEETING (COP16) OF THE UNITED NATIONS FRAMEWORK CONVENTION ON CLIMATE CHANGE (UNFCCC), IN CANCUN, MEXICO FROM 29TH NOVEMBER TO 10TH DECEMBER 2010, DATED 29 JUNE 2011
INTRODUCTION
The average pattern of weather, called climate, usually remains much the same for centuries if it is left to itself. However, the climate of the earth is not being left alone; people are taking actions that can change the earth and its climate in significant ways. The single human activity that probably has the largest impact on the climate is the burning of fossil fuels, such as coal, oil and gas. These fossil fuels contain carbon and burning them produces carbon dioxide gas. Since the early 1800s, when people began burning large amounts of coal and oil, the amount of carbon dioxide in the earth's atmosphere has increased by nearly 30% and average global temperature appears to have risen, causing climate change. Carbon dioxide gas traps solar heat in the atmosphere, fundamentally in the same way as glass traps solar heat in a sun-room or a greenhouse. Consequently, carbon dioxide is called a greenhouse gas and as more carbon dioxide is added to the atmosphere, it traps solar heat, preventing its escape from the earth’s surface leading to the warming of the climate and hence inducing the rise in the average temperature of the atmosphere.
Indeed, rising levels of greenhouse gases are already changing the climate and are expected to continue to do so throughout the 21st century and beyond. Climate change is likely to have a significant impact on the global environment through increases in temperature, increases in sea levels, changes in levels and patterns of precipitation, changes in the severity and frequency of extreme climatic events and so on. Although, it must be hastily added, there are uncertainties about the scale and impact of climate change, particularly at the regional and lower levels. Climate change could shift climatic zones pole-ward; vertically disrupting ecosystems and threatening the survival of some species. Human society will also face new risks and pressures due to climate-related threats to food security and the availability of water resources. As a result, human societies will need to mitigate the negative consequences of the changing climate and also adapt to future climatic regimes. Moreso, for developing countries, like South Africa. In fact, climate change poses one of the greatest challenges to South Africa, especially in terms of the efforts needed to arrest it, by reducing carbon emissions and adapting to its impacts. Tackling climate change has far-reaching implications for economic and social development, for production and consumption patterns, and thus for employment and income levels and poverty reduction. South Africa is not only a victim to the impacts of climate change, but it is also a major contributor to the process, owing to its high emissions profile: it is the 13th major greenhouse gas emitter globally and ranks 10th in terms of per capita emissions globally.[1] However, stabilising atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases demands a major global effort and it was precisely for this reason that South Africa signed the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 1993 and subsequently ratified it in 1997.[2] Domestic policy processes soon to culminate in a National Climate Change Response White Paper have been initiated to enable the country to effectively observe the Convention.
South Africa has been involved in multilateral processes that seek to bridle the negative impacts of climate change since the ratification of the Convention in 1997, and it is on this premise that the presiding officers of Parliament decided to send a delegation from Parliament to represent it at the Conference of the Parties, established under the UNFCCC, commonly known as COP16, in Cancun, Mexico, from 29 November – 10 December 2010. The delegation decided upon was multi-disciplined and multi-facetted, comprising Chairpersons of some of the most relevant Portfolio and Select Committees of Parliament dealing with Climate Change issues, and being multi partied, as follows:
Hon M Johnson, MP, Leader of the Delegation from the National Assembly (NA) and the African National Congress (ANC);
Hon Adv. JH De Lange, MP, from the NA and ANC;
Hon Dr. EN Ngcobo, MP, from the NA and ANC;
Hon S Njikelani, MP, from the NA and ANC;
Hon AND Qikani, MP, from the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) and ANC;
Hon P Mathebe, MP, from the NA and ANC;
Hon GG Mokgoro, MP, from the NCOP and ANC;
Hon M Mokgobi, MP, from the NCOP and ANC;
Hon G Morgan, MP, from the NA and Democratic Alliance (DA);
Hon L Greyling, MP, from the NA and Independent Democrats;
Mrs T Madubela, Logistical and Administrative Support; and
Dr Scotney Watts, Content Support.
Hon Dr. S. Kalyan, MP, from the NA and DA, joined the delegation, but represented the Pan African Parliament at the COP16 meeting.
Hereafter follows the report of the delegation.
BACKGROUND
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC or FCCC) is a multilateral environmental treaty produced by the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), popularly known as the Earth Summit, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in June 1992. The objective of the Convention is to stabilise greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the earth’s climate system. The Convention itself sets no mandatory limits on greenhouse gas emissions for individual countries and contains no enforcement mechanisms. In that sense, the Convention is considered legally non-binding. Instead, the Convention provides for updates, commonly called protocols, that would set mandatory emission limits. In this regard, the principal update is the Kyoto Protocol, which has become much better known than the UNFCCC itself.
The UNFCCC was opened for signature, after an Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee produced the text of the Framework Convention as a report, following its meeting in New York in April/May 1992. The Convention entered into force on 21st March 1994, and comprised 194 Parties in December 2010. One of the first strategic tasks of the Convention was to establish national greenhouse gas inventories of greenhouse gas emissions, which were used to create the 1990 benchmark levels for accession of Annex 1 countries to the Kyoto Protocol and for the commitment of those countries to greenhouse gas reductions. Updated inventories must be regularly submitted by Annex 1 countries.
South Africa acceded to the Kyoto Protocol, in June 2001, although it is not an Annex 1 country, meaning that it is not legally required to commit to emission reduction targets under the Kyoto Protocol. South Africa’s stated intention to mitigate climate change derives from its unique position in the climate change regime. For example, South Africa is Africa’s greatest emitter of greenhouse gases, despite the fact that emissions from the African Continent are low and expected to remain so for the immediate future.[3]
It is important to note that the UNFCCC is also the name of the United Nations Secretariat responsible for supporting the operation of the Convention, with its offices in Bonn, Germany. The Secretariat, augmented through the parallel efforts of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), aims to gain international consensus around Climate Change matters through meetings and the discussion of various strategies.
Chronology of the Conference of the Parties (COP) not attended by a Parliamentary delegation from the South African Parliament
The UNFCCC established the Conference of the Parties (COP), as its supreme body, with the responsibility of overseeing progress towards the aim of the Convention. The membership of COP consists of countries that have signed, ratified or acceded to the Convention. The Parties to the Convention have met annually from 1995 in Conferences of the Parties (COP) to assess progress in dealing with climate change.
The first session of the Conference of the Parties (COP1) was held in Berlin, Germany, in March/April 1995, where it was decided that post-2000 commitments would only be set for Annex 1 Parties.
The second session of the Conference of the Parties (COP2) was held in Geneva, in July 1996, where heads of delegations instructed negotiators to accelerate negotiations on the text of a legally-binding protocol or another legal instrument, to be completed in due time, for adoption at the third session of the Conference of the Parties. This was the conceptualization of the Kyoto Protocol.
This instruction, made at COP2, led at the COP meeting in Kyoto, Japan, in 1997, to a legally-binding set of obligations for 38 industrialised countries and 11 countries in Central and Eastern Europe, with the aim of returning their emissions of greenhouse gases to an average of approximately 5.2 percent below their 1990 levels over the commitment period 2008-2012. This is called the Kyoto Protocol to the Convention, which was concluded in 1997.[4]
COP4 was held in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in November 1998, where the status of ratification of the Convention and the Kyoto Protocol were assessed. The COP meeting took note that, as of November 1998, 174 States and one regional economic organisation were Parties to the Convention. It also took note that 59 States had signed the Kyoto Protocol and that two States had deposited its instrument of ratification of the Kyoto Protocol. At its 8th plenary meeting, on the 14th November, the Conference of the Parties was informed that the United States of America had signed the Kyoto Protocol.
COP5 took place in October/November 1999, in Bonn, Germany. It was primarily a technical meeting, and did not reach any major conclusions.
COP6 took place in November 2000, in The Hague, Netherlands. The discussions evolved rapidly into a high-level negotiation over major political issues. These included: the major controversy over the United States' proposal to allow credit for carbon sinks in forests and agricultural lands, satisfying a major portion of the United States emissions reductions in this way; disagreements over consequences for non-compliance by countries that did not meet their emission reduction targets; and difficulties in resolving how developing countries could obtain financial assistance to deal with adverse effects of climate change and meet their obligations to plan for measuring and possibly reducing greenhouse gas emissions. In the final hours of COP6, despite some compromises agreed between the United States and some European Union (EU) countries, notably the United Kingdom, the EU countries as a whole, led by Denmark and Germany, rejected the compromise positions, and the talks in The Hague collapsed. The President of COP6, suspended COP6 without agreement, with the expectation that negotiations would later resume.
COP6 negotiations resumed in July 2001, in Bonn, Germany, with little progress having been made in resolving the differences that had produced the previous impasse in The Hague. However, this meeting took place after President Bush had become the President of the United States and had rejected the Kyoto Protocol, in March 2001. As a result, the United States’ delegation to this meeting declined to participate in the negotiations related to the Protocol and chose to take the role of observer at the meeting. As the other parties negotiated the key issues, agreement was reached on most of the major political issues. The agreements included: the “flexibility” mechanisms which the United States had strongly favoured when the Protocol was initially put together, including emissions trading; Joint Implementation (JI); and the Clean Development Mechanisms (CDM), which allow industrialised countries to fund emission reduction activities in developing countries as an alternative to domestic emission reductions. One of the key elements of this agreement was that there would be no quantitative limit on the credit a country could claim from use of these mechanisms provided domestic action constituted a significant element of the efforts of each Annex B country to meet their targets. Similarly, it was agreed that credit would be granted for broad activities that absorb carbon from the atmosphere or store it, including forest and cropland management, and re-vegetation, with no overall cap on the amount of credit that a country could claim for sinks activities. Meanwhile, final action on compliance procedures and mechanisms that would address non-compliance with Protocol provisions was deferred to COP 7, but included broad outlines of consequences for failing to meet emission targets that would include a requirement to "make up" shortfalls at 1.3 tons to 1, suspension of the right to sell credits for surplus emission reductions, and a required compliance action plan for those not meeting their targets. Furthermore, there was agreement on the establishment of three new funds to provide assistance for needs associated with climate change: a fund for climate change that supports a series of climate measures; a least-developed-country fund to support National Adaptation Programmes of Action; and a Kyoto Protocol adaptation fund supported by a CDM levy and voluntary contributions.
A number of operational details attendant upon these decisions remained to be negotiated and agreed upon, and these were the major issues considered by the COP7 meeting. At the COP7 meeting, in Marrakech, Morocco, in October/November 2001, negotiators set the stage for nations to ratify the Kyoto Protocol. The completed package of decisions is known as the Marrakech Accords. The United States delegation maintained its observer role, declining to participate actively in the negotiations. Other parties continued working toward achieving ratification of the Kyoto Protocol by the requisite number of countries to bring it into force (55 countries needed to ratify it, including those accounting for 55% of developed-country emissions of carbon dioxide in 1990). The date of the World Summit on Sustainable Development that was to be held in Johannesburg, South Africa, in August/September 2002, was put forward as a target to bring the Kyoto Protocol into force. The main decisions at COP7 included: operational rules for international emissions trading among the Kyoto Protocol Parties and for the CDM and joint implementation; a compliance regime that outlined consequences for failure to meet emission targets, but deferred to the parties to the Protocol, once it came into force, the decision on whether those consequences would be legally binding; and accounting procedures for the flexibility mechanisms.