The talks, which began on Saturday, are focusing on how to secure the $30bn "fast start" funds pledged to be in by the end of next year, and also on how to build up the $100bn annual fund.
Clarity on the how and when of gathering the funds was "the bottom line" for Durban's year-end United Nations (UN) climate-change talks making real progress on implementing agreements reached at last year's UN climate-change talks, International Relations and Co- operation Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane said on Friday.
Deciding on the Kyoto Protocol's second commitment period and its future legal form was the other goal.
UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP) executive secretary Christiana Figueres said "nothing short of transformational change" was needed and this could not happen without finding an effective way of using public funds to leverage much higher levels of private capital.
Developing nations, especially those with big economies, needed to agree on reductions of greenhouse gas emissions for themselves at the Durban talks, COP president and Mexican Prime Minister Patricia Espinosa said in Pretoria after two days of informal ministerial talks on climate change ahead of the next formal round in Panama.
It was important to have informal meetings of the kind SA organised for Pretoria last week, said Serge Lepeltier, the climate-change negotiations ambassador for France. Read the full report here.
Source: Sue Blaine, Business Day.
