{"id":991161,"date":"2021-11-09T19:13:49","date_gmt":"2021-11-10T00:13:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=991161"},"modified":"2021-11-09T19:13:54","modified_gmt":"2021-11-10T00:13:54","slug":"south-africa-joins-growing-list-of-countries-ignoring-u-n-climate-demands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/south-africa-joins-growing-list-of-countries-ignoring-u-n-climate-demands\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa Joins Growing List of Countries Ignoring U.N. Climate Demands"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fsouth-africa-joins-growing-list-of-countries-ignoring-u-n-climate-demands%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=991161&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p class=\"subheading\"><span>South Africa on Monday declined to sign a commitment to end financing for coal production within 30 years, joining a growing list of countries that are refusing some of the United Nations\u2019 most burdensome climate change demands \u2013 a list headed by the world\u2019s worst polluter and largest burner of coal, China.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The pledge <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymaverick.co.za\/article\/2021-11-09-sa-will-not-sign-cop26-parallel-pledge-to-move-away-from-coal-says-environment-minister-creecy\/\"><span>advanced<\/span><\/a><span> at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, proposed an end to financing for coal by the 2030s for major economies and 2040s for developing nations. 40 national governments and institutions signed the pledge, but South Africa was not among them.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"gmxrevmore\" class=\"H\"><\/figure>\n<p><span>\u201cSouth Africa has not signed the move away from coal pledge. Our position in negotiations is that any decisions need to be made in the process of formal negotiations through the convention,\u201d said South Africa\u2019s Forestry, Fisheries, and the Environment Minister, Barbara Creecy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cI think that we would be worried about situations where there\u2019s an increase in tendency to set up platforms and pledges that are outside of the negotiation process. We think that it disadvantages developing countries,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_18677458\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" readability=\"33\"><a href=\"https:\/\/media.breitbart.com\/media\/2021\/11\/248967561_113180657822067_7183505741335865049_n.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-18677458\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/248967561_113180657822067_7183505741335865049_n-1024x1024-1.jpg\" alt=\"Barbara Creecy, South African Minister of Forestry and Fisheries and Environmental Affairs\" width=\"640\" height=\"640\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>Barbara Creecy, South African Minister of Forestry and Fisheries and Environmental Affairs<\/em><\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p><span>Besides objecting to the rushed process of these climate pledges \u2013 which even some climate activists deride as theatrical, toothless \u201cgreenwashing\u201d because they were not negotiated and properly ratified by national legislatures \u2013 Creecy said rushing to abandon coal could damage South Africa\u2019s economy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cWhat will happen is that the country will end up with stranded assets. And we know that in any transition there are winners and losers. The losers are seldom owners, it\u2019s normally the workers and the communities,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_18677498\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" readability=\"32\"><a href=\"https:\/\/media.breitbart.com\/media\/2021\/11\/GettyImages-111032054.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-18677498 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/GettyImages-111032054-1024x630-1.jpg\" alt=\"TO GO WITH AFP STORY BY Joshua Howat BergerSteam billows from Kempton Park Power Station in Johannesburg on March 27, 2011. The global fight over fossil fuels has hit home in South Africa as the coal-dependent country debates its energy future before hosting UN climate talks later this year. Africa&#039;s largest economy is overhauling its energy policy, looking to more than double its power supply by adding more than 50,000 Megawatts of electricity to the grid at a cost of 860 billion rand ($125 billion, 90 billion euro). AFP PHOTO \/ ALEXANDER JOE (Photo credit should read ALEXANDER JOE\/AFP via Getty Images)\" width=\"1024\" height=\"630\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>Kempton Park Power Station in Johannesburg. (ALEXANDER JOE\/AFP)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><span>Creecy added her government was willing to consider plans to transition from coal to natural gas, provided investors and international financiers are prepared to bankroll the transition. COP26 organizers would prefer coal-using countries skip cleaner fossil fuels entirely and move directly to renewable energy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>As with officials from many other developing nations, Creecy endorsed the idea of \u201cclimate justice,\u201d which means rich nations with a long history of industrialization like the United States would pay more and reduce carbon emissions faster, giving poor countries a chance to catch up. She suggested few African nations are prepared to accept the high costs and reduced industrial output of plans for dramatic carbon reduction by 2030 or 2050.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B3\" class=\"a8d adSo\"><\/figure>\n<p><span>South Africa currently <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2021\/11\/02\/africa\/south-africa-cop26-coal-intl-afr\/index.html#:~:text=Nearly%2090%25%20of%20South%20Africa&#039;s,per%2Dcapita%20on%20the%20planet.\"><span>relies<\/span><\/a><span> on coal power plants for almost 90 percent of its electric power, and it has an enormous coal mining industry to fuel those plants.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The coal industry is concentrated in the Mpumalanga province, which would bear the brunt of the economic damage from a rapid move away from coal \u2013 including some 450,000 jobs lost in a region that already has 34% unemployment.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>South Africa\u2019s notoriously dirty coal plants make it the worst carbon polluter per capita in the world, according to climate activists, so its refusal to sign the coal phase-out pledge will be a major disappointment for COP26.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, and European Union announced an $8.5 billion \u201cdecarbonization\u201d partnership for South Africa at the Glasgow climate summit. Details of the plan have not been worked out yet. South African leaders, including President Cyril Ramaphosa, have strongly hinted they will not make any economic sacrifices until they see money on the table.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cWe want your more developed economies that have been responsible for the greatest emissions in the world, to be the ones who will live up to the offers they have made in the past. Once they do that, we will then be able to navigate our own transition,\u201d Ramaphosa <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2021-10-01\/south-african-president-ramaphosa-to-skip-climate-conference\">said<\/a> in early October, when explaining why he would not personally attend COP26.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>South Africa on Monday declined to sign a commitment to end financing for coal production within 30 years, joining a growing list of countries that are refusing some of the &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-991161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/991161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/41"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=991161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/991161\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=991161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=991161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=991161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}