Developing countries are frustrated over having to limit their industrial growth to avoid pollution, South Africa's International Relations Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane has said. According to News 24, Nkoana-Mashabane was speaking in Pretoria at the announcement of the public enterprises department's climate change policy framework for state-owned companies, and the signing of the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC), which is aimed at green world economy.
Nkoana-Mashabane said developed countries were mostly responsible for the unchecked rise in green house gases.
"Countries with high standards of living are mostly responsible for the rise in greenhouse gases, and especially the early industrialized nations from Europe, North America and Japan," News 24 quoted Nkoana-Mashabane, as saying.
"There is a fundamental unfairness to the climate change problem," she said.
She said the developing world is frustrated because its growth is being hampered by 'those who have a historical responsibility for polluting' the universe.
The minister said climate change was 'very central' on the global agenda, as it contributes immensely to poverty.
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Senior officials from Eskom, SA Airways, Transnet, SA Express, arms manufacturer Denel, diamond miner Alexkor, telecommunications company Broadband Infraco, and the SA Forestry Company signed the pact.
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Source-ANI