Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) - partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 27 April 2010

The third meeting of BASIC Ministers on climate change took place in Cape Town from 25 to 26 April 2010.

During their deliberations, Ministers emphasised the following:

1.  The BASIC Ministers expressed their determination to continue to show leadership in acting on climate change.

2.  Developing countries strongly support international legally binding agreements, as the lack of such agreements hurts developing countries more than developed countries. They noted that internationally binding legal agreements already exists in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and its’ Kyoto Protocol. In accordance with the Convention, Brazil, China, India and South Africa are taking ambitious nationally appropriate mitigation actions, as announced in Copenhagen.

3.  The Ministers agreed that in accordance with the mandate of the Bali Roadmap, such agreements must follow two tracks and include an agreement on quantified emission reduction targets under a second commitment period for Annex I Parties under the Kyoto Protocol, as well as a legally binding agreement on long-term cooperative action under the Convention. Ministers felt that a legally binding outcome should be concluded at Cancún, Mexico in 2010, or at the latest in South Africa by 2011. Continue reading BASIC Ministers issue joint statement