South Africa's draft zero climate change policy, which was due to be released by the Department of Environmental Affairs by the end of September, has been postponed, as the department deployed the majority of its resources into supporting negotiating standpoints related to international climate change negotiations.

Environmental Affairs DG Joanne Yawitch explained that work on the national policy would "pick up again in January", as it was not ideal to release a draft national policy so soon before the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change conference in Copenhagen in December.

She added that decisions or agreements made in Copenhagen could also inform national policy, in terms of funding and technology frameworks, and would allow the drawing up of the national position to move ahead with more clarity. The draft zero policy would likely be released for public comment in March 2010.

The end goal was still to have a White Paper on climate change drawn up by the end of 2010, Yawitch stated. This document would translate into a legislative, regulatory and fiscal package by 2012.

The White Paper on climate change would address all sectors and would likely outline sector specific targets to be met. Yawitch added that the department was currently undertaking a transport sector greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions inventory, which was an important part of the work being done, and would inform future policy.

She emphasised that decisions made at Copenhagen would give some indication of the level of response that would be required from South Africa at the national level.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has suggested certain "required by science" mitigation targets on climate change, such as developed industrialised nations cutting GHG emissions to below 40% of 1990 levels by 2020. This would avoid increased GHG emissions, and thereby contain the average temperature increase within tolerable levels.

To date, global average temperature increases of some 0,7 ºC have been recorded, and scientists have suggested that temperature increase should be kept below 2 ºC, in order to avoid "catastrophic" climate change.

International negotiations to date have highlighted a reluctance on the part of certain developed countries, particularly the US, to commit to legally binding emission reduction targets.

African nations have argued that if they do not know what developed nations are willing to commit to, they cannot be sure of the kind of temperature increases they will have to face, and exactly what kind of adaptation action will be required.