Mandate

• South Africa and the UK have much to gain from collaboration in this field and both countries are committed to deepening our partnership on sustainable development and related issues. The two countries agreed on 16th of March 2007 to launch the UK-South Africa High-Level Dialogue on Sustainable Development.
• This Dialogue is designed to strengthen bilateral ties across a range of policy areas and to provide leadership on sustainable development. There is an appetite in both countries for an approach to addressing common challenges that will create new opportunities and mutual benefits.

Format & content

• A framework has been established to enable cross Government collaboration and to facilitate a broad stakeholder engagement under the Dialogue.
• A Senior Officials Steering Group will underpin this Ministerial-level Dialogue.  This Steering Group may, if required, establish Ad Hoc Working Groups to provide technical expertise and guide joint initiatives on the themes that reflect ongoing debates and concerns in both countries.

The aim of this work will be to share experiences and help deliver mutually-beneficial solutions facilitated through the Dialogue, official exchanges, research, projects and partnerships.  The bodies may include,  but will not be limited to:

• Representatives of Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs; Department of Trade and Industry; Department for International Development; Foreign and Commonwealth Office; and Office of Science and Innovation in the UK, and the South African Departments of Foreign Affairs; Environmental Affairs and Tourism; Agriculture; Land Affairs; Minerals and Energy; Water Affairs and Forestry;  and  Science and Technology;
• Representatives of academia, NGOs and other civil society groups;
• Representatives of business, industry and the scientific community.
• Furthermore, the Dialogue will stimulate multi-stakeholder engagement in both countries to make for a richer Dialogue, as well as bring additional expertise and momentum for follow-up actions as relevant.

Themes

The following is a list of themes common to both the UK Sustainable Development Strategy and South African National Framework for Sustainable Development that forms the framework for co-operation under the Dialogue:

• Climate change and energy for sustainable development
• Sustainable consumption and production
• Environmental enforcement
• Mainstreaming sustainable development and governance

Under the “mainstreaming sustainable development” theme the following sub-themes may be further elaborated.

• Capacity building in agriculture
• Sustainable management and protection of natural resources
• Sustainable communities (urbanisation)
• Private sector and financial institutions

The Working Group on Climate Change will focus on five areas:

• the promotion of low carbon technology nationally and internationally
• improving the scientific collaboration on assessing the impacts of climate change and building capacity
• implementation of carbon markets including under the Clean Development Mechanism
• exchanging views on key policy issues relating to possible forms of long-term action
• dialogue on the links between climate change, poverty eradication and social development

The activities will feed into the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change on long-term co-operative action, the ongoing Gleneagles Plan of Action and Dialogue, and the UK-South Africa Sustainable Development Dialogue.

Duration

This arrangement will be effective for three years in the first instance. Ministers may  wish to review this towards the end of that period.

Annex A : Working group on Climate Change

On climate change and energy for sustainable development, several projects are already taking place under the UK-SA Working Group on Climate Change. For example, the UK/Brazil/Southern African Taskforce on Biofuels is working to facilitate the development of sustainable biofuel production, use and trade in Southern Africa, focussing initially on Mozambique.

Joint UK-SA work is also taking place on options for a future international climate change regime, which aims to provide a range of balanced packages or scenarios, with a view to influencing the international climate change debate; and negotiations on a wider international climate change framework for the post –2012 period. Work on biofuels sits full-square at the centre of the emerging sustainable development dialogue (SDD) between the UK and South Africa.

This issue is rapidly gathering momentum, for the following reasons:

• In the meeting between the South African Minister of Land and Agriculture and the [UK] Permanent Under Secretary of State, the South African Minister requested UK support for biofuels development.
• Brazil, who leads in the technology to convert sugar cane to ethanol, needs producer partners to stabilise supply in order to build global markets, and is already part of the UK taskforce exploring this issue.

Agreement on such a partnership is seen as a potential 'quick win' in relation to a number of G8 commitments - climate change, African agriculture, growth, and science and technology support to Africa's development.