Cleaning up

MOST of the country woke up to chilly, wintry mornings on Tuesday and yesterday. In Kwazulu-Natal, Gauteng, the Free State, North West and Limpopo, among others, rains are long overdue, while other areas are experiencing floods and snow.

Many parts of the continent are in the grip of debilitating drought. The majestic roars of the Victoria Falls have been reduced to a trickle.

Weather patterns are definitely out of kilter. Many scientists agree that these are the results of climate change.

That is why next month’s UN Framework Convention on Climate Change meeting in Paris – known as the 21st Conference of the Parties, or COP21 – is so important.

The Paris Climate Summit is the deadline agreed to in 2011, under what is known as the “Durban Platform”, for the delivery of two objectives – increasing the level of climate action, including the strength of targets and the provision of climate finance, in the pre-2020 period; and developing a new agreement “with legal force” to apply to all countries from 2020 onward.

Since talks intended to create a global climate commitment broke down in Copenhagen six years ago, negotiators have been holding a series of meetings from Cancun, Doha and Durban to Warsaw trying to find a way forward and bridge some pretty significant differences.

In fact Kyoto, the existing international climate treaty that is supposed to cover developed countries’ targets until 2020, has not formally entered into force because too few governments have made a proper legal commitment to it, despite promising to do so in 2012.

In Africa it’s the risk to crops and fish stocks that is really frightening – climate change could cause huge famines and food price hikes.

In our backyard, authorities are darkly hinting at the prospects of water shedding in some parts if the situation worsens.

COP21 offers the final stop and the best hope for a new international climate change agreement.

This is their chance to create the healthy sustainable future we all desire.