By Emmanuel Koro
Johannesburg,
The French capital city, Paris last week brought to us a heart-breaking mixture of the two most critical world problems for which lasting solutions are urgently needed – terrorism and climate change.
Just a few weeks ago France came under heavy and fatal terrorist attacks, sending shock waves not only there, but worldwide.
Now it hoster one of the most important UN environmental conferences that seeks to address a world-wide felt problem of climate change; the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) 21st Conference of Parties (COP21). The COP21 will run from 30 November to 11 December 2015.
It is against this background that just before, France’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Development, Laurent Fabius started globe-trotting reassuring some of the over 150 heads of states attending the meeting; including South Africa’s president Jacob Zuma that they will not be harmed while attending the UNFCC COP21. Currently, 195 states are members of the UNFCC.
Our leaders are going to address a global climate change problem whose future threat to human and environmental wellbeing has already been proved beyond doubt by the UN Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
Sadly, there is still concern that there is little commitment from some world leaders to fully address climate change problems. This is evidenced by the UNFCCC’s continued failure to significantly reduce the emission of gases that cause climate change since the adoption of the UNFCCC in May 1992 and later its entry into force as a legally binding Convention in May 1994, to date.
“Twenty years later, we are nowhere near achieving the aim of the Convention,” said a recently published Greenpeace International Report. “Carbon dioxide emissions have grown by about 40 per cent and atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations have not been this high for millions of years. Global mean temperatures have increased by a whopping 0.4 degrees Celsius and oceans have become 0.28 degree Celsius warmer.”
In its 2012 report headlined ‘Climate protection between hope and despair’ Greenpeace International confirms that UNFCCC member countries failed to live up to their promises under the Kyoto Protocol to cut down their emissions by 5.2 percent below 1990 levels by 2008-2012.
The climate change-causing gases that the UNFCCC is fighting to reduce include carbon monoxide from car exhaust pipes, methane, nitrous oxide, tetrafluoromethane, hexafluoroethane and sulfur hexafluoride. These gases are also collectively referred to as greenhouse gases (GHGs). They contribute towards the warming of the earth/globe because they prevent heat from escaping from the earth into space, creating global warming.
It is this global warming trend that the world is fighting to stop by calling for the reduction in emission of GHGs.
Climate experts worldwide have continued to warn that the world cannot afford any further global warming. This begs the question: “Will Paris go down in history as the city where world leaders decided once and for all; to put petty politics and socioeconomic interests aside, in the interest of having long-lasting solutions to address the commonly shared climate change problem?”
Adopted in Kyoto Japan on 11 December 1997 and entered into force on 16 February 2005, the Kyoto Protocol is an international agreement under the UNFCCC popularly known for committing world governments (its parties), to strictly adhere to binding emission reduction standards. Sadly it expired at the end of 2012. This potentially left the global climate change efforts at a standstill.
Fortunately, UNFCCC member countries later met in Doha, Qatar and voted to extend the Kyoto Protocol to 2020. The sad reality about Kyoto is that it continues to expire and is due to do so in 2020.

Addressing Kyoto Protocol life-span problem
Fully aware of this Kyoto ‘life-span’ problem, the UNFCCC member countries recently made a welcome decision calling for long-term climate change commitments during COP 17 held in Durban, South Africa. They agreed to create a new international climate agreement by the conclusion of the UNFCCC Conference of the Parties (COP21) in Paris in December 2015.
Under this new and long-term commitment towards addressing climate change UNFCCC member countries have agreed to publicly outline their post-2020 climate actions under a new international agreement, known as Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs). The INDCs will largely determine whether the world achieves an ambitious 2015 agreement at COP21 in Paris and for the first time create a worldwide shared commitment to change life-styles at all levels of society, towards a low-carbon and climate-resilient future.
In line with the worldwide acceptable the sustainable development motto of “Think globally, act locally and make a difference” a world united by a common problem of its own making; climate change – will be meeting in Paris next week to address climate change, meaningfully. Expectations are high that the INDCs will be the life-line of future generations to whom a life-giving environment should be continuously handed-over.
South Africa’s INDC local consultative process ahead of COP21.
Over the past few months leading to UNFCC COP21, South Africa has been mobilising stakeholders from all sectors of the society to give an input into its INDCs. One of the most interesting consultative INDC processes took place in Gauteng, South Africa’s most industrialised province and no doubt one of the biggest contributors towards emitting GHGs.
At the recent Gauteng Pre-COP21 INDC Stakeholder Engagement Conference, held in Gauteng recently Gauteng stakeholders effectively used the Conference as a platform to give their Provincial input that would be fed into to the National INDC in Paris at the UNFCC COP21, this month.
In his keynote address the MEC for Gauteng Departments of Economic, Environment and Agriculture, Rural Development, Mr Lebogang Maile said that our efforts towards mitigating and adapting to climate change impacts should not ignore the need to address the climate change challenges faced by the poor and historically disadvantaged communities. These include rural communities and townships.
The master of ceremony Gauteng Department of Agriculture and Rural Development Deputy Director General: Natural Resources Management, Advocate John Nesidoni said in his opening and closing remarks that the INDC were important for us and future generations. He said that the decisions that we were making were not only going to have an impact on the lives of South African people but also on billions of people from different parts of the world.