SA expert calls for cooperation in implementing Paris agreement on climate change

A South African expert on Monday stressed the need for both developed and developing countries to work jointly to ensure the implementation of the landmark climate change agreement signed in Paris.

The agreement, signed on Saturday, is significant with its ambitions plans, Dr. Julia Steets, Director of the Global Public Policy Institute told Xinhua in an interview.

The Paris agreement calls for aiming to hold global average temperature rise to below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and strives for limiting the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

"The most important part is the agreement on the overall goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees. This is ambitious and it is significant that this further increase in the overall ambition of the goal was driven mainly by developing countries, whereas before the goals were often formulated by developed countries,"Dr.Steets said.

This therefore calls for countries to decarbonize industries, Steets said, adding that there is a need to make significant changes both in government and private sector.

"For South Africa, for example, tackling the energy crisis while at the same time getting rid of coal-fired power stations would require a real changing of gears. Expanding carbon trading and the clearly stated overall goal should give incentives to the private sector to increase investment in climate-friendly technology and production processes,"Steets said.

Steets also pointed out that at the moment the actions taken to combat climate change are nowhere near the scale that would be needed.

"While the agreement is strong on defining the overall goal, it is weak on the specifics of the implementation. While quite a fundamental change in the economies of both developed and developing countries would be necessary," Steets noted.

Taking into account of the needs and priorities of developing countries, the agreement also eyes 100 billion U.S. dollars a year by developed countries for developing countries from 2020.

"Financial support to developing countries remains quite vague and developed countries do not seem to have opened up new funding sources for this,"added Steets. Enditem