South Africa to co-chair climate change panel

South Africa to co-chair climate change panel

Alex Abutu

South African president Jacob Zuma will co-chair a United Nations (UN) panel on climate change and sustainable development in September in the USA.

UN secretary general Ban ki-Moon said in a statement that Finnish president Tarja Kaarina Halonen will be the other chairperson of the panel. Forbes magazine named Halonen among the 100 Most Powerful Women in the world last year.

The three pillars of climate change - economic, social and environmental - will be addressed during the panel's first meeting, the statement said.

The meeting will be held between 19 and 25 September 2010 in New York. Zuma was quoted as saying the United Nations was recognising the key role that the African continent should play internationally.

He said this showed South Africa's commitment to the goal of achieving sustainable development in the world, as evidenced by South Africa hosting the upcoming Conference of the Parties 17 (COP17 Summit) in 2011 and the presence of cabinet minister Trevor Manuel in the UN's high level advisory group on mobilising climate change resources.

Other African members of the UN's high-level advisory group on mobilising climate change resources include Soumaïla Cissé, president of the West African Monetary Union Commission, Ethiopian prime minister Meles Zenawi and Donald Kaberuka, president of the African Development Bank. Meanwhile, meetings on climate change between the Group of 77 developing countries and China, the African Group, and the small islands, developing States and the least developed countries will take place in China from 28 September to 3 October 2010.

After these preparatory meetings the UN will host a major Climate Change Conference from 4 to 9 October 2010 in Tianjin, China.

Links
United Nations
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change