South African Water and Environmental Affairs Minister Buyelwa Sonjica on Friday returned from her nine-day US visit, where she raised the profile of climate change adaptation for Africa.
This took into account poverty eradication, thereby balancing development imperatives and addressing the impacts of climate change, which could have devastating effects on the poor who were viewed as most vulnerable.
Sonjica, once again, emphasised the need for developmental space in developing countries, hence the inability to take on legally binding emission reduction (mitigation) targets beyond the actions outlined in the various announcements by developing countries, such as South Africa’s long-term mitigation scenarios. She argued that developing countries were grappling with delivery of the Millennium Development Goals, access to energy, and energy security. Read more…
