Rich countries must pay towards climate plans

"They must provide finance," he said in Pretoria at the signing of a memorandum between the department of energy and the Clinton Foundation.

The memorandum of understanding dealt with developing concentrated solar power in South Africa.

Magaziner said South Africa had the best sun in the world to produce solar energy, especially in the Northern Cape.

"We are confident to mobilise the sun to produce low cost energy," he said, adding a feasibility study would be conducted in the next three months.

Thereafter a business plan would be drawn up and the construction of the solar power plant was expected to start at the end of next year.

He said building a solar power plant was expensive but it was cheaper to operate and maintain than other forms of power.

Energy Minister Dipuo Peters said South Africa's unique renewable energy resources remained largely untapped.

She said the co-operation between South Africa and the Clinton Foundation would assist in developing cleaner, renewable energy technologies.

"A solar park could serve up a concentrated dose of solar development in our country and could include significant solar generation capacity by different independent power producers," she said.

Peters said the solar park concept was attractive as it would save time and labour, making the unit cost of renewable energy more competitive than conventional fuel generation.

"This is the ultimate goal we want to achieve with the development of renewable energy."

Magaziner said when they attended the Climate Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark later this year they would go there with the message that climate change was real and rich countries must provide finances.

The Clinton Foundation is an international non-profit organisation which seeks to help governments in various countries with interventions to mitigate the negative impact of climate change.

The Foundation is assisting governments in India, Australia as well as the South Western States of the United State of America to assess, develop and implement projects with the view of deploying the generation of larger solar energy platforms.