Creecy welcomes ‘successful’ COP26 summit
Forestry, Fisheries and Environment Minister Barbara Creecy has applauded South Africa’s contribution to the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow earlier this month.
SA joined other delegates from 190 countries at the table for climate talks, renewing commitments to reduce the impact of climate change.
The country is among parties that set ambitious goals to help contribute towards keeping the global temperature at 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels to prevent the severe impact of climate change on human health and unpredictable weather conditions.
Creecy described this year’s summit as a step towards realising the target.
“The international community has united behind a shared objective to inject a greater sense of urgency to address the global climate crisis and to do so on the basis of international equity and the latest available science.
“The concludes Paris Agreement Work Programme will assist parties to fully implement the Paris Agreement in the context of a Just Transition and sustainable development that will leave no one behind.
“COP26 sets the international community on the right rack to addressing the existential challenge of climate change,” said Creecy at a media briefing on Wednesday.
Creecy added funding from developed nations was crucial for SA’s implementation of climate change mitigation measures.
The European Union, US, UK, Germany and France pledged R131 billion to SA in a bid to drive the country’s transition to cleaner, renewable energy sources.
“We want to setup a high-level financial team to interrogate this offer and understood exactly what is available here in terms of the mix of financing.
“I think that team will include National Treasury who will be looking at what regulatory environment could allow us to utilise this money. And obviously that regulatory climate would have to look at existing debt levels,” Creecy added.
Egypt is expected to host the COP27 summit in 2022.
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