The Minister of Environmental Affairs, Dr Edna Molewa, will deliver the keynote address at the South African Talanoa Dialogue at the Midrand Conference Centre in Gauteng on 23 August 2018.

The opening plenary will also be addressed by the EU Ambassador to South Africa, Dr Marcus Cornaro.

The Talanoa Dialogue, convened in terms of the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change, is a facilitative dialogue established in November 2017 at the 23rd Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Bonn, Germany.

The objective of the dialogue is to take stock of collective international efforts to bring forward as far as possible the global peaking of greenhouse gas emissions and rapid reductions thereafter.  A critical element is to achieve a balance between emissions caused by human activity and the ability to remove such greenhouse gases from the atmosphere in the second half of the century – a key goal of the Paris Agreement.  These reductions are to be achieved on the basis of equity, and in the context of sustainable development and efforts to eradicate poverty.

As part of this process, due to conclude at the end of the 2018 Conference of the Parties (COP24)  in Poland, individual countries, including South Africa, are conducting their own Talanoa Dialogues. BASIC (Brazil, China, India, South Africa) Ministers pronounced on a commitment to hold national Talanoa events following a meeting in Durban in May 2018.  
 
A two-day Talanoa Dialogue is a platform to share stories, aspirations, and ideas of how the country’s climate change response can foster its development aspirations.
 
Participants in the event include the Ministers of Energy, Water Affairs and Sanitation, Economic Development and International Relations and Cooperation, as well as representatives of national, provincial and local government, big business, civil society, academia, scientists, the youth and NGOs as well as representatives of the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the UNFCCC.
 
Media are invited to attend the two-day Dialogue and  a media briefing to be hosted by Environmental Affairs Minister, Dr Edna Molewa, and the EU Ambassador to South Africa, Dr Marcus Cornaro.  
 
RSVP IS ESSENTIAL.
 
Details are as follows:
Official Opening:
Date:  23 August 2018
Time:  09:00
Venue:  Midrand Conference Centre,  661 Pendulum Rd, Halfway House Ext 12, Midrand
 
Media Briefing:
Date:  23 August 2018
Time: 10:30
Venue: Midrand Conference Centre
 
To RSVP contact:
 
Dimakatso Tsutsubi on Tel:  012 399 9974  or Email: dtsutsubi@environment.gov.za
 
Or
 
Eleanor Momberg on    C: 083 400 5741   or  Email: emomberg@environment.gov.za
 
 
For media inquiries contact Albi Modise on 083 490 2871