Buyelwa Sonjica (born 23 March 1950) is a South African politician who served as Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs from May 2009 until November 2010.
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As a country that relies heavily on fossil fuels approximately 80 percent of our electricity is generated from coal. We adopted an energy mix policy, fossil and renewable energy. We have started implementing this policy but the biggest challenge is to produce renewable technology in South Africa.
We think that this is another measure that will overburden developing countries. We believe that the real debate for Copenhagen is mainly on two issues; firstly the targets for reductions and secondly, the mechanisms to fund climate change programmes.
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As developing countries the overriding priorities of developing countries are socio-economic development with emphasis on poverty eradication, job creation, health and education and of course to bring real changes to our people in far flung rural areas.
Even in the midst of the current financial crisis, it is the responsibility of developed countries to take the lead in combating climate change, not least through funding and technology transfer to developing countries.
We need to locate our efforts around climate change within the same debate on achieving our millennium development goals. We owe it to our future generation to act responsibly. Our development path includes using our resources in an efficient and sustained manner.
As you would appreciate our situation in the continent is unique because we contribute about 2% of the 3,8% of emissions that Africa contributes. Consequently we have adopted a balanced approach looking at adaptation and mitigation