Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning
What is his Department’s contribution to (a) address climate change and (b) mitigate the effects thereof?
My Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning is responsible for the co-ordinaton of the WCG climate change response which is driven by the Directorate Climate Change. Given the constitutional responsibility around policy development, the Western Cape Government has been working in the climate change space since 2005, with the release of the “Status Quo, vulnerability and adaptation assessment of the physical and socio-economic effects of climate change in the Western Cape (2005), followed by the release of the first Western Cape Climate Change Response Strategy and Action Plan in 2008. The second Western Cape Climate Change Response Strategy was released in 2014 together with an Implementation Framework. This field is transversal in nature and as such requires responses across all departmental sectors and range of stakeholders in the province. In 2016 and 2018, the Department completed the Strategy Monitoring and Evaluation reports, highlighting the sector climate change responses that have been implemented in the Western Cape since the launch of the 2014 Strategy.
In June 2016, the Western Cape Government committed to responding to climate change as a regional government by joining The Climate Group – States and Regions Alliance, an international non-profit network of like-minded regional governments determined to contribute to the international response to climate change in order to keep global average temperature increases between 1.5 and 2°C. As part of this, in April 2017, the Western Cape Government signed the sub-national Climate Leadership MOU as part of the Under2 Coalition, a commitment to contribute to reducing global GHG emissions to net zero.
The Department is completing its detailed review and update of the 2014 Strategy on behalf of and with Western Cape Government Departments. This will ensure alignment with international and national commitments, the global level of urgency and new challenges that are facing the region. It has been circulated for public and private stakeholder inputs.
At the same time, the first complete greenhouse gas emissions inventory for the Western Cape is being completed. It will be released to the public and will inform a greenhouse gas emissions reduction plan. This plan will guide our province to the end goal of reaching net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
The documents referred to provide more detail so you are invited to visit the Department webpage (https://www.westerncape.gov.za/eadp/about-us/meet-chief-directorates/environmental-sustainability/climate-change ) as well as to contact the Climate Change Directorate (deadp.climatechange@westerncape.gov.za) for specific clarity on any of the response programmes.
