The South African government would establish a reconfigured inter-Ministerial committee to formulate a national programme for climate change, as well as the country's formal negotiation stance ahead of global climate negotiations in December. But Cabinet reiterated on Thursday that it was not ready to agree to any targets at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) negotiations in Copenhagen, Denmark, that would undermine South Africa's growth trajectory.

The UNFCC negotiations were scheduled to begin on December 15 with the aim of reaching agreement on an international climate-change regime beyond the 2012 horizon of the Kyoto Protocol.

The new committee would comprise six ministers, but quite surprisingly did not include the energy and science and technology ministers, whose departments were viewed as key, particularly given that most of the country's emissions arose from the production of electricity, as well as transport fuels via the carbon-heavy coal-to-liquids technology.

However, it would include water and environmental affairs, international relations and cooperation, economic development, trade and industry, rural development and cooperative governance and traditional affairs.

South Africa also intended interacting with other developing nations ahead of Copenhagen to ensure that the final mandate incorporated a so-called "development agenda" for alleviating poverty and economic growth.

WWF's climate change programme manager Richard Worthington told Engineering News Online that the Cabinet statement was in line with government's previous pronouncements on the issue.

It also underlined South Africa's position that industrialised countries needed to take the lead in reducing overall carbon emissions, as well as in supporting measurable, reportable and verifiable developing-country efforts to pursue lower-carbon development paths.

He added that while South Africa's rejection of caps was justifiable and logical, especially given its power stresses, if continued to fail to fully recognise the compatibility between the country's sustainable development objectives and the pursuit of climate-change mitigation and adaptation strategies.

"There needs to be a mindset change in government where the primary objective is not economic growth alone, but rather sustainable development, which is synergistic with low-carbon development," Worthington explained.

Cabinet reiterated that it was prepared to take responsible and measurable action to reduce emissions over time, in line with its existing energy policy and the Long Term Mitigation Scenarios (LTMS). But it made it clear that South Africa would not accept a formal cap, despite acknowledging the country's contribution to carbon emissions and the potential opportunities presented by science in pursuance of a low-carbon future.

"Like other developing nations, we still face the major challenge of growing our economy to enable us to meet the Millennium Development Goals," the Cabinet said in a statement, adding that it viewed adaptation efforts as a priority at the Copenhagen talks.

"Economies must be transformed to enable sustainable, low emissions growth and development, and at the same time, allowing communities and developing nations to adapt to climate change," the Cabinet statement concluded.