Durban, South Africa — The countdown has begun. The biggest climate change roadshow on earth hits the South African city of Durban next month. Things are hotting up for the momentous November 28 to December 9 event — and not just as a result of global warming.
Read Durban Follows Cancun, Hosts 2011 Climate Change COP17 Summit. Plus see a Durban slideshow here.
With just over a month to go, the excitement is palpable. You feel it when you talk to anybody involved in planning for the 2011 17th Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Kyoto Protocol (CMP7).
“Climate Change is the single biggest government issue in the world today and this is the biggest conference event of its kind ever held in Africa,” says eThekwini Municipal Manager, Dr Michael Sutcliffe.
The parties to the convention have met annually since 1995 in Conferences of the Parties (COP) to assess progress in dealing with climate change. In 1997, the Kyoto Protocol established legally binding obligations for developed countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. A primary focus of COP17-CMP7 will be to secure a global climate agreement as the Kyoto Protocol's first commitment period (2008–2012) is set to end.
“COP17-CMP7, marking the end of the Kyoto Protocol, signifies a critical moment as what follows will be post-Kyoto. This adds to the PR value — putting Durban and KwaZulu-Natal attractions on the world map — of having the conference here,” says Sutcliffe. (While often abbreviated to COP17, the official title is COP17-CMP7.)
While it was impossible to put a hard figure on the direct financial benefit of COP17 to the city at this point, Sutcliffe offered R600 million as a conservative guesstimate based on an average daily estimate of 25,000 visitors spending R60 million per day for three weeks.
This is especially significant given the state of the global economy, which is having to-be-expected negative fall-out in South Africa. COP17 also comes at what is usually a sluggish period for Durban — the country’s top domestic tourism destination and conference city.
Numbers the city is likely to see, Sutcliffe predicts, include around 15,000 official delegates, 7,000 aids and administrators, plus another 20,000 to 25,000 representing NGOs, civil society groups and other non-official / non-delegate groupings.
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