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South Africa would like to urge Canada to reconsider their position not to enter into the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol.

South Africa believes the Climate Change talks must be inclusive to assist the process of ensuring a balanced outcome to emerge from the current talks. The effects of climate change are real and already here with us. South Africa would like to call on Canada and other developed countries to ensure that they heed the call made by the developing countries particularly in Africa and the Small Island Developing States (SIDS) who feel the brunt of Climate Change effects.
The Kyoto Protocol is an important first step towards a truly multilateral rules based legally binding global emission reduction regime, that will stabilise GHG emissions, and provides the essential base for international agreement on climate change involving the participation of all countries in accordance with their common but differentiated responsibilities and capabilities.

The Kyoto Protocol is an international legally binding instrument under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The major feature of the Kyoto Protocol is that it sets up multilaterally agreed rules governing binding targets for the 37 industrialised countries for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. These amount to an average of five per cent reduction in GHG emissions below 1990 levels over the five-year period 2008-2012.