Minister Nkoana-Mashabane departs for UN Climate Change Meeting in Panama

International Relations and Cooperation Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane will depart South Africa on Sunday, 02 October 2011, for Panama City, Panama, to participate in a crucial meeting of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), taking place in Panama City, Republic of Panama, from 01 to 07 October 2011.

The meeting is officially known as the third part of the 16th Session of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Further Commitments for Annex I Parties under the Kyoto Protocol (AWG-KP 16) and the third part of the 14th Session of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action under the Convention (AWG-LCA 14).

Minister Nkoana-Mashabane will participate in the meeting on 03 and 04 October 2011 in her capacity as incoming President of the 17th Conference of Parties (COP17) to the UNFCCC and the seventh Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP7), which is to take place in Durban from 28 November to 09 December 2011.

Whilst in Panama, Minister Nkoana-Mashabane will sign the Host Country Agreement on behalf of the Government of the Republic of South Africa with the UNFCCC Secretariat for South Africa’s hosting of the COP17/CMP7 in Durban.

During the meeting of the UNFCCC in Bonn, Germany, in June 2011, South Africa, as the incoming COP17/CMP7 President, took care to maintain a high level of transparency and inclusiveness by interacting with all major groupings, Parties, stakeholders, observers, the chairs of the subsidiary bodies, the chairs of the Ad Hoc Working Groups and the UNFCCC Secretariat.

In this regard and as a start to South Africa’s role as incoming President, two open-ended dialogue sessions were organised in Bonn to provide a space for Parties and Stakeholders to express their views and expectations for the Durban outcome.

In addition to the above, South Africa and Germany jointly hosted the “Petersberg Climate Dialogue II – rising to the climate challenge” in July 2011, as an informal Ministerial meeting and as a “stepping stone” towards COP17/CMP7 in Durban. This event was followed by an informal workshop on mitigation and measurement, reporting and verification (MRV), which was hosted by South Africa, as the incoming president of COP17/CMP7, Mexico and Auckland, New Zealand, from 25-26 July 2011.

South Africa and Mexico hosted the informal Ministerial Consultations from 08-09 September 2011, preceded by the stakeholders segment on 05 September 2011 and the negotiators segment on 06 and 07 September 2011 in Pretoria, South Africa.

South Africa will convene informal sessions in Panama, including with stakeholders, to further contribute to a balanced and credible outcome in Durban. South Africa will also host a ministerial Pre-COP meeting in South Africa on 20 and 21 October 2011.

For further information, please contact Mr. Clayson Monyela, spokesperson for DIRCO, on 082 884 5974

ISSUED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS AND COOPERATION

OR Tambo Building
460 Soutpansberg Road
Pretoria

02 October 2011