Cape Town - Officials from the Department of Forestry and Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) virtually briefed the portfolio committee on environment, forestry and fisheries on the outcomes of COP27 in Egypt, particularly the country’s latest Green-House Gas (GHG) emissions.
The presentation to the committee was made by South Africa’s chief negotiator on climate change, Maesela Kekana, together with the DFFE team which echoed the department’s statement welcoming the final outcomes of COP27, including the historic decision to establish a fund to assist developing countries to respond to loss and damage caused by climate change.
Kekana said there were various perspectives on whether COP27 was a success or not, but for them success was measured in terms of their mandate and in this regard, he believed that COP27 delivered on its mandate. Kekana added that the Africa group also believed that COP27 delivered on its mandate.
However, they were disappointed in the conduct of developed countries around issues of adaptation.
“Developed countries do not seem to take this as a serious area of work. Some developed countries have not fulfilled the financial pledges they made in Glasgow to the Adaptation Fund. There is also a need to work within the G7 and China to reach an understanding on the recognition of Africa’s special circumstances and special needs,” Kekana said.
Committee member Narend Singh (IFP) said it did inspire confidence that there was a universal commitment to reducing the impact of GHG emissions and its resulting effect on climate change.
Jongikhaya Witi, chief director of climate change monitoring and evaluation, gave an update on the country’s latest GHG emissions (dated 2020) and revealed that the country was at about 440 million tons, which was 20 million tons more than the country’s 2030 upper range target which was about 420 million tons.
Kekana said: “We all know that if South Africa today was to reduce its emissions to zero, it would suffer the consequences. It is only the collective effort of all the parties that would have an impact on South Africa, which is what makes these multilateral engagements very important. If we do not engage and push everyone to do their fair share, we would not go very far.”
Committee member Dave Bryant (DA) said the presentations showed that the ANC government was quick to condemn Western countries for historic greenhouse gas emissions, but chose to blatantly ignore China, which currently produces over a quarter of global emissions.
“When questioned by DA members as to why this is the case, officials repeatedly stated that they believe China should be exempt from condemnation and paying reparations because they choose to define themselves as a developing country,” Bryant said.
Kekana said this was not the first time they were dealing with this and it was the view of the US that as developing countries, they needed to isolate China as big emitters because it was a “developing” country.
kristin.engel@inl.co.za