By Global warming is changing the planet as we know it, with the continued carbon emissions across the globe, Earth is fast becoming inhabitable and remedial actions are urgently needed to reverse the damage already done to our planet.
Industry leaders, politicians, financial institutions and civil organisations came together under one roof at the United Nations Climate summit COP28 in Dubai to discuss the global crisis of climate change, representing 200 countries. South Africa is also represented at the summit and has presented its bid on how it is implementing the Just Energy Transition (JET) plan to decarbonise the economy and mitigate the effects of climate change.
President Cyril Ramaphosa presented South Africa’s JET implementation plan to the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres at the summit on Saturday, 2 December, and to other JET partners, to which they committed USD 8.5 million towards the efforts of South Africa to decarbonise its economy.
To address the challenge of climate change, it will take collective effort from all countries in the world, including developing economies; to this, Ramaphsa called on all developing economies to take part in the effort to address climate change.
“We are calling for more countries to participate, as our Just Energy Transition Plan requires much more funding, so that we can enable a more effective and positively impactful transition, particularly with respect to communities that are going to be affected as we transit from fossil fuel sources of energy to renewables.
As the Summit continues in the next two weeks we want to see sharper focus coming from developed economies with respect to living up to their Paris commitments. We still expect the 100 billion dollars that was promised to be made available to support countries that are least responsible for climate damage manage the effects of climate change”, said President Ramaphosa.
“South Africa applauds the landmark decision of COP28 to operationalise the new fund on loss and damage, and welcomes the pledges that have already been made. We would like to see the fund growing along with the implementation of all other commitments that have been made thus far,” continued President Cyril Ramaphosa.
The COP28 summit commenced from 30 November and will continue until 12 December 2023.
