South Africa To Host Climate Meeting Of Basic Countries

South Africa will host the 11th ministerial climate change meeting of the BASIC group of countries -- Brazil, South Africa, India and China -- on July 12-13 in Johannesburg.

The Department of Environmental Affairs said in a statement  that the meeting would be implementing the agreement the ministers reached at the 10th Ministerial Co-ordination meeting in New Delhi in March 2012.

"During the meeting, the BASIC ministers will exchange views on the progress made in implementing the Durban decisions, as well as the conclusion of the Bali Roadmap negotiations at the COP18-CMP8 (international meetings on climate change) in Qatar later this year," said the department.

It is widely expected that the two-track negotiations on long-term co-operative action and further commitments for Annex I countries under the Kyoto Protocol will be terminated at COP18-CMP8. Progress in the implementation of the Durban meeting decisions is, therefore, a key necessity for the successful conclusion of the Bali Roadmap in Qatar.

The BASIC meeting will also be used to discuss implementation of the historic Durban Platform, which ushered the negotiations for a post-2020 climate regime.

The ministerial meeting will be preceded by a meeting of experts and chief negotiators from the four countries. Their discussions will focus on the various approaches for raising ambition pre-2020 and how to find meaningful expression of equitable access to sustainable development in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

In line with the BASIC approach, and with a view of strengthening coordination within the Group of 77 developing nations and China (G77 China), several other developing countries have been invited to the meeting. These include Algeria, The Gambia, Nauru, Qatar and Swaziland.

The BASIC countries have been increasingly playing a significant role in international environmental governance. With South Africa having hosted COP17-CMP7, Brazil hosted the Rio 20 Conference, with India hosting COP10 of the Convention on Biological Diversity in the coming months, while China hosted the UNFCCC inter-sessional meeting in Tianjin during 2010, in the run-up to CoP16-CMP6 in Cancun.