South African President Jacob Zuma on Saturday called for a fair and ambitious legally binding agreement on climate change at the upcoming Paris Climate Change Conference.

This will mark the successful conclusion of the mandate agreed to by consensus in Durban, South Africa in 2011 to enhance implementation of the existing Convention, Zuma said before leaving for France to attend the 21rst Conference of the Parties (COP) of the United Nations Framework for Climate Change Convention, which runs from the end of November through to mid-December in Paris.

Having launched the negotiations at COP 17 in Durban in 2011, South Africa has a special interest in doing all that it can to ensure the success of the Paris COP, Zuma said.

"To be successful, the new agreement must be fair. Fairness would imply respect for the Convention's principle of Common but Differentiated Responsibilities and Respective Capabilities," said Zuma.

"The provision of financial resources, technology transfer and development and capacity building, is central to the Paris Agreement. The reality is that without adequate, predictable and sustainable means of implementation, it will be impossible to reach our agreed temperature target," Zuma said.

This is because key mitigation potential is in developing countries, such as South Africa, and these countries are not able to realise this potential on their own, he explained.

Finance will be of central importance to the Paris outcome and has to be an integral part of the Agreement itself, Zuma added. Endit