Durban Growth Series, President Zuma starts the shift

How can we shift national economic development onto a low carbon path, while international negotiations remain entrenched? On Sunday in Durban, the World Economic Forum welcomed South African President Jacob Zuma, together with five cabinet ministers and more than 50 leaders from business and the NGO community, to answer this question. President Zuma set the tone for the session in his opening address, laying out the bold steps South Africa is taking to deliver on a third of its new power generation from renewable energy sources and moving its economy onto a low carbon path.

“We must form strong partnerships to save tomorrow today. This World Economic Forum roundtable offers an opportunity to forge and strengthen partnerships between business and government,” President Zuma stated, challenging business and government to move out of their comfort zones to take the lead on solving the climate challenge.

Minister for Water and Environment Edna Molewa welcomed the Durban Growth Series as an opportunity to showcase national success stories in advancing solar and renewable energy, water partnerships for sustainable economic growth, and agricultural growth corridors.  “We must make both bottom up actions and top down approaches work,” Minister Molewa stressed, adding the “government can set the target and the regulatory framework, but business must play a significant role in leading the transformation to a greener economy.” 

President Zuma was joined by business leaders from Nestlé, Yara International, Deutsche Bank, Eskom and J&J Group, who welcomed the South African government’s leadership in forging strong partnerships with industry and explained a number of existing collaborative models. They agreed that a key challenge was to scale up these successes, and stressed the need to ensure a holistic approach that takes into account the nexus linking the development of scarce water resources, agriculture and energy.  In closing, WWF Director General Jim Leape commented that “this is the richest dialogue I have yet seen at COP17 about substantive partnerships between industry and government.”     

Sunday morning’s opening was an excellent start to the Durban Growth Series and offered a flavour of what promises to be a rich set of discussions over the next two days of how national progress is being made on bottom up green growth solutions.

*Thomas Kerr is a Director at the World Economic Forum and Head of Climate Change Initiatives. He is in Durban South Africa hosting the Durban Growth Series as part of the COP17. 

What is the Durban Growth Series? Watch Director Thomas Kerr explain below.