South Africa is one of the biggest carbon emitters per capita and hopes to reduce emissions through a just transition to solar, wind and other renewable forms of energy.Environmental Affairs Minister Barbara Creecy says that one of the thorny issues they will also discuss at the conference is that of so-called ‘loss and damage’, where countries responsible for climate change compensate those who were not responsible and who are suffering loss and damage.
“In the situation that we are in, on the African continent, where each and every day we experience the devastating impacts of climate change. Those developed countries, who have caused the problem through the accumulation of greenhouse gases that have resulted from industrialisation and also their development, cannot renege on the commitments that they made at COP26,” says Creecy.