Building a new, ambitious global climate agreement by 2015 will require drawing in China and the United States, and boosting financial help for poor nations so they feel “energised” to act, South Africa’s climate change ambassador has said.
With China’s new leadership under domestic pressure to tackle worsening pollution, and U.S. President Barack Obama promising action on climate change after his re-election, now is the moment to press the world’s two biggest greenhouse gas emitters, said Nozipho Mxakato-Diseko, South Africa’s ambassador-at-large for climate change.
It is vital to reach a deal by 2015 so Obama can help ratify it during his final term, she said. “If we miss that point, we revert,” she warned.
Finding sufficient international funding to help poorer countries develop in a cleaner way and adapt to the unavoidable impacts of climate change is also crucial to ensuring they become part of a new and ambitious-enough climate deal, she said.
“With finance, a lot can be resolved,” she said during a meeting on Monday at London’s Chatham House, an international affairs institute. But right now, “the level of finance is too low to energise” developing countries, she said.
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