{module Cop 17|none}

Investigating Africa and the South’s Interest on Climate Change: Africa and the Global South at large, have vested interests as far as climate change and the negotiations surrounding it, are concerned. Understanding these interests is key to gauging the dynamics that would come to shape COP17 in Durban. Investigating Africa and the South’s Interest on Climate Change was a full-day dialogue tasked with unpacking these interests ahead of the 2011 climate talks. The dialogue formed part of the IGD’s environmental diplomacy programme, which is generously funded by the Royal Norwegian Embassy. It was jointly hosted by the IGD, the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) and Ingabadi Group on the 25th of November 2011 at the Southern Sun North Beach in Durban. The dialogue, which was attended by members of the diplomatic corps, representatives from civil society and the academia, aimed to shed light on the diversity of interests represented by Africa and the Global South in the negotiations. It assessed the complexity of factors likely to be at play during the negotiations as a result of the plethora of interests involved. Perspectives from Africa as well as nations in the Global South such as Brazil, South Africa, India and China (BASIC), were brought to the fore during the dialogue.

A wealth of speakers contributed to the dialogue by giving presentations. Among them were; Mr Xinran Qi, Georgetown University, USA, Dr Marco Vieira, Lecturer in International Relations, University of Birmingham, UK, Ms Swati Ganeshan,  Associate Fellow at the Centre for Global Agreements, Legislation and Trade in Resources, Regulation and Global Security Division of The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), India, Mr Francis Kornegay, Institute for Global Dialogue, Ms Masego Madzwamuse, Open Society Institute for Southern Africa, Ms Estherine Fotabong, NEPAD Agency of the African Union, Ms Nancy Kachingwe , Land Access Movement of South Africa (LAMOSA)  and Professor Mike Muller, University of the Witwatersrand.