Will the COP come to the Cape?

South Africa, buoyed by the successful hosting of the 2010 Fifa World Cup, can look forward to another major event soon to be staged on it's shores.

But where sporting events like the Rugby World Cup, Africa Cup of Nations, Cricket World Cup and the recent Fifa spectacle have enthralled thousands or millions of fans, the decisions made by the participants in SA's "next big event" will affect the entire planet's inhabitants. Every one of the nearly 7 billion of us will be affected by a changing climate.

The 17th Conference of the Parties (COP17), the United Nations annual conference on Climate Change, comes to South Africa in 2011. But will it be Cape Town, Johannesburg or Durban that hosts the conference?

That is the question every eco-pundit is asking as the three major cities are currently finalising their bids to be the hosting city for the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) conference from 28 November to 9 December 2011.

The UNFCCC is an international environmental treaty started by the United Nations at it's "Earth Summit" held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. The objective of the treaty is to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous human-caused interference with the climate system.

COP17 is of paramount global importance, especially given the poor outcome by nations at last December's Copenhagen Summit (COP15) and that the Kyoto Protocol is only in force until 2012 and needs a hugely more effective and binding replacement.

South Africa was one of the signatories to the "Copenhagen Accord", along with the US, China, India and Brasil at last year's summit.

Whilst the Copenhagen Accord recognises the scientific case for keeping temperature rises below 2°C, it did not contain any commitments for reducing emissions to achieve that aim. The US hailed it as a "meaningful agreement", but most commentators regarded COP15 a failure, falling horribly short of what is required to address climate change.

John Sauven, of Greenpeace UK stated that "The city of Copenhagen is a crime scene ... It is now evident that beating global warming will require a radically different model of politics than the one on display here in Copenhagen."

So whilst South Africa will not have a say in the negotiating style, perhaps we can add some African Madiba magic to the mix to facilitate an agreement that will require politicians to transcend themselves.

Feel it. Climate change is here.

In our obviously unbiased opinion the bid should come to Cape Town as we are serious about putting green on the map. The Cape Town Green Map even made its way into the official bid documentation, according to sources.