Hon Chairperson, hon members, I would like, at the beginning of this important debate - which is a debate that is preparing us for participation in Indonesia on the Kyoto Protocol - to dedicate my speech to Dr Ian Player, one of the strongest environmentalists that we have in the country. He is an environmentalist of note in the world who turns 80 today: Happy birthday to Dr Ian Player. [Applause.]
I had invited him to be in the House when we debate the Kyoto Protocol, something that is very close to his heart, but unfortunately his international duties could not allow for that.
In recent months the climate has changed on the topic of climate change. The climate has changed on climate change. All those people who were in denial that there is climate change now understand that there is climate change. You don't have to be educated to understand that. You don't have to be sophisticated to understand that. When winter comes in summer and summer in autumn, it tells you that there is something wrong. But all this that I am saying is caused by man and can be reversed by man or by human beings, to be gender sensitive. [Interjections.] I didn't say by a man, I said by man, which is a human being.
How do we correct that? Last week during the International Women's Day celebrations in Spain, the first speaker to address that international conference was an environmentalist from Africa, a woman, Wangari Mathai. She set the tone for that international conference, but unless and until we take the environment seriously, we can have nobody else to blame, but ourselves. The worry is: What about the generations to come? We know that we are polluting today, but the consequences are going to be suffered years later by innocent people who are not the polluters today.
At this point, I just want to congratulate one member of this House who has a formula that comes from the experts, and who tells us how much you pollute the air every time you fly between Johannesburg and Cape Town. For you to offset that carbon you need to plant one tree. He has gone to look at the cost of the trees at Trees for Africa and every time he flies, he plants a tree. That member is the hon Lance Greyling. [Applause.]
We hon members who are forever flying, we are the culprits as well. I have been speaking to Trees for Africa to communicate with each one of you through your constituencies and assist you in planting trees. Because if we plant trees, half the problem of the world shall have been attended to. We are all dedicating our efforts today to say that even if South Africa, in terms of the Kyoto Protocol, is not listed as a polluter compared to the big giants like the US, we still have to take care of the environment.
Indeed, the climate has changed on climate change, starting especially with the Stern report released late last year; the issue of climate change has suddenly appeared brightly on the political radar, perhaps for the first time because the impacts were starkly portrayed in economic terms by an economist Sir Nicholas Stern, being a former Chief Economist at the World Bank. This has nothing to do with the Network on the World Bank that is here today.
Following closely, was the release of the Fourth Report from the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC, which, in contrast to its predecessors' very conservative approach, has taken a bold stand on the urgency of the need rapidly to take action. Make no mistake, this eminent, scientific panel of the world's foremost climate scientists is not given to alarmism and does not make statements or take facts lightly. Their findings are based on the very best research results from the world's best climate scientists and institutions. But even they have now considered that all previous estimates of both the extent of global warming, as well as the rate at which it is happening and will happen, have been grossly underestimated and we are now entering the exponential part of the curve.
This is in fact a clarion call, a Mayday warning that we are no longer talking about global warming, but we are talking about global heating. And I don't think there is a member who will dispute that. We are no longer talking about global warming, but global heating.
To date politicians largely, heavily influenced by the pro-carbon lobby, have been content to look at the best-case scenarios and pay lip service to any remedial action. That includes us. Worst-case scenarios have been summarily dismissed as scaremongering by environmental groups. However, if we look back 17 years to 1990 when the need for a Kyoto-type initiative was first mooted, it is apparent that almost every box in the worst-case scenario has now been checked.
Whilst Kyoto was a great first step in the right direction in itself, it will achieve nothing unless it is used as a template for more serious agreements and a springboard to them. What does this mean for South Africa? We are in a classic catch-22 here. An ageing infrastructure which must contend with massive increasing demands to meet socioeconomic imperatives; an arguably the cheapest electricity in the world, but also some 87% of our power comes from coal-fired power stations and we are a per capita amongst the highest emitters of carbon dioxide and thus contributors to climate change in the world.
As a developing country, as I said earlier, South Africa is not yet subject to emission reduction targets, but in the post-Kyoto negotiations these are a certainty. Together with an emissions penalty of some sort, simply put, we will very soon see the real costs of our carbon-intensive power generating heating homes and it is going to become very uncomfortable. For some it is already uncomfortable, eating heavily into our economic growth projections, unless we take the opportunity to change.
As a country we have yet to seriously invest in new and renewable energy technologies and options and some effort has been noted in this direction. For example, with our climate solar energy in all forms is a clear frontrunner, in particular, for solar water heating, the biggest energy user in domestic households; this requires a courageous and aggressive approach to changing building practices.
If we do not take these opportunities now, which offer massive openings for international investment, new business, job creation and reduction in energy costs in the long term, we will have them forced on us by the global communities. We do not want anything forced on us, because, as South Africa, much as we were a young democracy when Kyoto was introduced, we did what was expected of us as a nation and we ratified the Kyoto Protocol.
We tried by all means even to talk to the big giants in the world to ask them to come to the table. It has been difficult, but Kyoto is now in operation and it can only be us who assist. And why I am participating in this debate is because the environment is my love and my home. And I know very well that, as I urge hon members to join me, I did promise Wangari Mathai that, she must just watch this space, South Africans are going to plant more trees. I think that with the committed hon members of this House that I know, led by Ubaba Gatsha Buthelezi, we will plant trees.
I know very well that we will plant trees and we can be a proud, shining nation saying to everyone that we care about the environment, not because we care about ourselves, but we care about generations to come; those innocent children that will be coming into a messy world because of us. Let us clean up so that they can come and live in a clean environment. Thank you. [Applause.]
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Ms C-S Botha): Order! Are you rising on a point of order, hon member?