The Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, Barbara Creecy has called on developed countries to ensure access to long-term, predictable, and affordable finance for developing countries. The minister who took part in a July Ministerial Climate Change meeting, stressed that it is imperative from the perspective of restoring and maintaining trust and transparency that the COP assess whether the goal of mobilizing jointly USD 100 billion has been achieved.. The event was hosted by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) COP 26 President-Designate, Mr. Alok Sharma, on 25 and 26 July 2021 in London, UK.
The July Ministerial brought climate and environment ministers and representatives from more than 50 countries together to lay the groundwork for success ahead of November’s Glasgow COP26 negotiations on climate change. The event marks the first face-to-face ministerial of its kind in more than 18 months. The topics under discussion included the Global Goal on Adaptation and scaling up efforts to adapt to the impacts of climate change, keeping 1.5°C alive, loss and damage caused by climate change, focus on Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, and mobilizing climate finance.
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The Minister stressed that for the UNFCCC COP 26 in Glasgow to be relevant, responsive and successful we need ambition and progression on mitigation, adaptation and means of implementation, i.e., finance, technology and capacity building. Adaptation and loss and damage are central to the multilateral climate regime, both under the Convention and under its Paris Agreement. One of the triumphs of Paris is the global goal on adaptation, a very strong recognition of the centrality of adaptation to the multilateral climate regime.
On the Global Goal on Adaptation Minister Creecy said: “South Africa envisages an outcome at COP 26 on adaptation that will enable practical progress, including launching a formal programme of work on the operationalization of the Global Goal on Adaptation” and furthermore “We need to increase the adaptive ability and resilience of the global population to the adverse impacts of climate change by at least 50% by 2030 and by at least 90% by 2050. In this regard, focus would be placed on the most vulnerable people and communities; the health and well-being; food and water security; infrastructure and the built environment; and ecosystems and ecosystem services, particularly in Africa, SIDs and LDCs.”
With regard to keeping alive 1.5-degree Paris Agreement goal Minister Creecy said: “given the importance of long-term pathways for attaining the 1.5 degree goal, South Africa is of the view that it would be useful to provide encouragement to Parties to update and communicate their long-term strategies and to provide with this encouragement the means of support for developing countries to do so. We are also of the view that it would be valuable for the Secretariat to compile a synthesis report of these long-term strategies from time to time”.
Ministers also reflected on key steps of concluding in Glasgow the issues of carbon market or the so called Article 6 of the Paris Agreement with the main focus on ensuring robust accounting rules and the share of proceeds from internationally transferred mitigation outcomes to finance adaptation efforts of developing countries.
“We would like to congratulate the in-coming UK COP26 President for providing Ministers with space to advance the key negotiating issues that are necessary for the success of Glasgow COP 26”. Minister Creecy concluded.
The minister also held a series of bilateral meetings on the margins of the July Ministerial with a range of countries with a view to enhancing potential cooperation with South Africa on climate action.
