South African President Jacob Zuma opened the conference, and pointed to the climate impacts in Africa as a reason for all governments to take action.

“We have experienced unusual and severe flooding in coastal areas in recent times, impacting on people directly as they lose their homes, jobs and livelihoods. Given the urgency, governments need to strive to find solutions here in Durban,” President Zuma said. According to the UN’s top climate change official, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Executive Secretary, Christiana Figueres, governments can take two major steps in Durban.

The first step relates to completing a comprehensive package to help developing countries adapt to climate change and to limit the growth of their greenhouse gas emissions, which was decided at the UN Climate Change Conference in Cancun last year.

The second step that can be made in Durban relates to how governments will work together to achieve their common goal of limiting the global temperature rise to a level which will prevent the worst ravages of climate change.