With the third day of the seventeenth Conference of the Parties (COP 17) kicking off in Durban on Wednesday, Water and Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa told Engineering News Online that South Africa was still heading into the climate talks with “realistic expectations”.

She said that a solution to the challenges posed by climate change would have to be one based on a multilateral level. “There is no other way. It cannot be based on a bilateral level or any other level.”

The COP 17 events were progressing well to date, the Minister said, adding that the South African delegation would continue to push forward its position.

The level of engagement from South African business on issues related to climate change was showing “significant levels of improvement”, and the private sector should be given more credit for their “active participation”, Molewa said in an interview on the sidelines of the COP 17 climate change talks in Durban.

The difference, the Minister said, was not just the increasing levels of participation, but also the increasing levels of reaction and response – it was no longer just a “theoretical level of improvement”.

Molewa said that this was clearly represented at the Climate Change Response expo in Durban, where a plethora of big and small businesses in South Africa were being represented.

“The atmosphere of engagement between business and government has transitioned to a different level and continues to progress. As government, we need to ensure that we create an enabling regulatory framework that will continue to attract business to South Africa and allow business in South Africa to grow."

Globally, Molewa believed that this year’s climate change talks saw a more balanced approach in the participation of private sector and civil society organisations.