Minister of Environmental Affairs Edna Molewa has signed the Paris Agreement on climate change at the United Nations in New York.

Signing the agreement on behalf of the South African government, Molewa agreed that South Africa would adopt the agreement within its own legal system, through ratification, acceptance, approval or accession.

The agreement will enter into force when ratified by at least 55 countries, which together represent at least 55% of global emissions.

South Africa is already acting on climate change.  The country has significant investment in renewable energy, public transport, energy efficiency, waste management and land restoration initiatives.

South Africa is also striving to enhance efforts to transition to a lower carbon economy and society, as well as to adapt in the short, medium and long term to the impacts of increasing temperatures, and reduced rainfall in many parts of the country.

 

Paris Agreement

The Paris Agreement was adopted on 12 December 2015 at the 21^st session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC CoP21) held in Paris from 30 November to 13 December 2015.  The Agreement was adopted after four years of intense negotiations that was mandated by the 17^th UNFCCC CoP held in Durban in 2011.

The Secretary-General on the UN, Ban Ki-Moon, acting in his capacity as depository of the Agreement, had convened a high-level ceremony for the opening for signature of the agreement on Friday 22 April 2016. Parties to the Convention are able to sign the agreement until 21 April 2017.

The Paris Agreement is universally regarded as a seminal point in the development of the international climate change regime under the UNFCCC.

The agreement is a comprehensive framework which will guide international efforts to limit greenhouse gas emissions and to meet all the associated challenges posed by climate change. It signals the change in pace towards the low carbon development from 2020 onwards through commitments of countries in ambitious national plans called Nationally Determined Contributions. This outcome recognises that climate change represents an urgent threat to human societies and the planet, requiring the widest possible cooperation by all countries and other stakeholders.

The main objective of the agreement is to limit the global temperature increase to well below 2°C, while pursuing efforts to limit the increase to 1.5°C. The recognition of the 1.5°C target is of central importance to South Africa as an African and developing country that is highly vulnerable to climate change.

The Paris Agreement is also an important tool in mobilising finance, technological support and capacity building for developing countries, and will also help to scale up global efforts to address and minimise loss and damage from climate change and increase climate resilience.