The nominal goal of the talks in the harbor city of Durban is to come up with a binding international agreement on climate protection, either by extending the Kyoto Protocol - the first phase of which expires next year - or through the creation of a new treaty altogether.

But given the huge discrepancy between delegates' demands, nobody is realistically expecting the conference to deliver either document. Nonetheless, host nation South Africa hopes its unique circumstances will help bridge divisions between rich and poor to deliver a slate of concrete results.

"As a county we are extremely vulnerable to climate change but are also one of the biggest emitters in the world, and are also a developing country," said Lance Greyling, Chief Whip of South Africa's opposition Independent Democrats and member of the parliamentary committees for energy and environment.

"We are also part of the Africa grouping and that is the continent that is pushing hardest for real binding outcomes, because they are the most vulnerable," Greyling told Deutsche Welle.

South Africa's emissions record

Speaking after a two-day preparatory meeting last month, South African Foreign Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane told reporters she expected this year's Conference of the Parties (COP) in Durban to be "tough," especially on the vexed issue of whether to extend the Kyoto Protocol.

She said last year's meeting in Cancun had avoided big issues in the interest of reestablishing trust in the wake of the failed Copenhagen summit of 2009, and that those issues could no longer be put off.

"It is going to be a tough COP because it is a COP that can't avoid the political issues that were not thoroughly discussed in Cancun," Nkoana-Mashabane said.

"We no longer have time to postpone the key issue, particularly of the second commitment period" of Kyoto, she said. "It has to be discussed in Durban."

South Africa's emissions record

One hurdle is South Africa's own climate record, which is less than flawless.

According to United Nations statistics, South Africa has overtaken France, Italy and Spain in per capita emissions of greenhouse gasses.

In 2008, the host state notched up emissions of 8.8 tons per person, 14 times more than Nigeria and 29 times more than Kenya.

South Africa's dependence on fossil fuels – it gets 95 percent of its energy from coal – makes it the dirtiest energy producer in Africa.

It's also a record set to get worse. The state energy provider Eskom is using a World Bank loan to build two of the world's biggest-ever coal power stations.

"Before about 2005, climate change wasn't really on the agenda with regards to South Africa," said Lance Greyling. "I think that we worked very hard since then."

At the Copenhagen climate conference two years ago, South Africa became one of the first emerging nations to commit to a significant reduction in its emissions. It agreed to cut them by 34 percent of their expected trajectory.

"We have relied on coal, it's been a cheap energy source for us and so we've built up our industries around that, we have built up our minerals exploration around that, so our economy is kind of hard-wired to this, so I think out commitment is at a fundamental disjuncture with the past," Greyling said.

According to Climate Action Tracker, which monitors countries' emissions pledges, South Africa's target would see its emissions peak between 2020 and 2025, before reaching a plateau for a decade and coming down in absolute terms.

New nuclear plans

In order to reach this goal while simultaneously satisfying the nation's energy needs, South Africa is investing in nuclear power.

Politically, climate protection vies for attention with the fight against poverty, job creation and the provision of health and education.

With such a basket of development needs to address, financing a renewable energy transition will be an enormous challenge.

"If South Africa is really serious about building six new nuclear reactors, I have no idea how it will be financially possible to invest in renewables," said Antonie Nord, Director of the Cape Town office of the Heinrich-Böll Foundation.

Nord said it was the responsibility of industrialized countries to help South Africa finance those investments and make the shift to cleaner fuel generation.

This is the idea behind the Green Climate Fund (GCF), which is set to be one of the major issues on the agenda at Durban that could see progress.

Although industrialized nations have already agreed to provide developing states with more than 100 billion dollars per annum by 2020 to finance their responses to climate change, it is still not clear where the money will come from and who will administer the fund.

In light of the global financial situation, it is unlikely that all the money will come from state coffers.

Nonetheless, negotiators hope to settle these questions this year and South Africa is optimistic that, on this point at least, it can mediate a solution.

Reporter: Leonie March / tkw
Editor: Nathan Witkop