The climate and the situation in Zimbabwe dominated South Africa meeting

Ahead of the Climate Conference in Copenhagen in December, the EU and South Africa both emphasise the importance of political leadership.

At a press conference following Friday's summit, Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt stated:

“We have agreed with South Africa, which is an important developing country, that the total level of global emissions must start to decline by 2020 at the latest.”

“Africa as a whole is probably the continent most severely affected by climate change”, Prime minister Reinfeldt continued.

The EU and South Africa also agreed on a long-term goal which means that by 2050 climate emissions will be at half the 1990 level.

The summit conclusions were communicated in a joint statement on Friday afternoon. Read the full statement via the link to the right.

Regional issues, such as the situation in Zimbabwe, were also discussed at the summit. Swedish Minister for International Development Cooperation Gunilla Carlsson, who also was present at the meeting in Cape Town, will be travelling to Zimbabwe on Saturday on a Troika visit.

“We are going to Zimbabwe to follow up the implementation of the power-sharing General Political Agreement. The EU has a very important role to play to urge development in Zimbabwe in the direction of democratic change and respect for human rights”, says Gunilla Carlsson.