South Africa’s position at the seventeenth Conference of the Parties (COP 17) climate change conference will seek to balance climate and development imperatives, Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) chief negotiator Alf Wills said on Friday.

Speaking at a stakeholder engagement summit, in Johannesburg, Wills said such a balance would require developing-country priorities, such as the need for poverty eradication, be respected, while still ensuring a deal on global emission reductions that was adequately ambitious to avert dangerous climate change.

It was generally also accepted that the Durban gathering would not result in a “legally binding final agreed outcome”, but would instead be the next step to reaching an “agreed outcome”.

Therefore, a key COP 17 focus would the future of the Kyoto Protocol.

Some developed countries, led by Japan and Russia, assert that the system is both unfair and environmentally ineffective. In addition, South Africa, Africa, Small Island Developing States, and least developed countries assert that the current system is ineffective.

The alternative for those not in favour of a second Kyoto Protocol commitment period would be to replace the protocol with a new treaty.

The content of this year’s negotiations, which begin on November 28, would be the unresolved political issues surrounding the continuation of Kyoto Protocol, as well as how to operationalise outcomes from the Cancun and Bali talks.

The agenda for the negotiations would focus on a shared vision, adaptation, mitigation, finance, technology and capacity building.

It would also include sectoral approaches not agreed in Cancun and addressing the needs of the countries with economies in transition, such as Russia and Turkey.

Further the treatment of intellectual property rights, trade and equity and the review of the adequacy and ambition of the global mitigation effort would also be a priority.