South Africa's environment minister does not expect countries to agree on a legally binding climate deal in Durban at the end of the month but does expect the talks at least to help retain the Kyoto protocol framework and move discussions forward. South Africa will host international negotiators in the port city between November 28 and December 9 to work on a new global climate pact to succeed the Kyoto protocol, but expectations are low as rifts from previous summits continue.
"The whole world is quite aware that it will not be possible to get a legally binding agreement out of Durban, because there hasn't been much discussion or agreement on what form that agreement would take, and there isn't any kind of draft right now," Edna Molewa, minister for environment and water, told Reuters in an interview.
But she said South Africa was confident a "political agreement" could be reached to preserve the architecture of Kyoto until a binding deal could emerge by 2015. The first commitment period of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol ends next year. The pact was intended to limit the adverse effects of climate change but only obliged developed countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
"It's important to save this architecture, because it's the only rule-based system we have," Molewa said. "A creative approach will help us to even get the Japanese, the United States and the Russians on board .. So that at least we can have a discussion on how to come up with something that will save these talks and agree on continuing to clarify the legal form up to 2015."
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.