DECLARATION: Women in Media and Environment Conference

Therefore resolve as follows:

A. PUBLIC AWARENESS AND CAPACITY BUILDING

1. To utilise every available opportunity and every relevant platform at our disposal to raise awareness on climate change
2. Call on the South African media fraternity – including print, broadcast and electronic – to inform and educate society on climate change
3.  Call on government to invest more in educating and training women in the areas of environmental health as well as science and technology in order to create a substantial skills and knowledge base
4.  Call on the private sector to take advantage of opportunities in the green economy to protect and create sustainable green jobs
5. Call on all sectors of society to sustain information flow on climate change towards COP17 and, more importantly, well beyond the conference
6.  Further call on all sectors of society to work together and implement campaigns, like nationwide tree-planting, in order to raise public awareness on environmental health and climate change
7.  Commit to sustain partnerships forged at this conference on climate change awareness and activism.

B. IMPLEMENTATION OF PREVIOUS TREATIES

8.    Call on the South African government to move urgently and decisively towards formulations and implementation of necessary policies in order for South Africa to adapt adequately to, and mitigate the impacts of, climate change

9.    Call on delegates at the COP17/CMP7 to build on the foundation laid by the Kyoto Protocol and move a step further towards an all-inclusive mechanism to deal with the negative impacts of climate change

10.    Call for implementation, without further delays, of all previous international treaties on climate change.

C. AFRICAN POSITION

11.    Call on African delegates to the COP17 to speak with one voice and represent the best interests of African people at the conference as Africa stands to suffer the most from climate change
12.    Further call on African delegates to the COP17 to take advantage of the conference and create partnerships with both the developing and developed world towards a future climate change treaty that protects and benefits the livelihoods of all in the African continent.

Held at the Impilo Conference Centre

Department of Health: Pretoria 03-04 September 2011
Adopted on 4 September 2011 at 12h10