South Africa is in a part of the world that is severely impacted by climate variability. The country frequently experiences droughts, floods, and other extreme weather events, with evidence that the frequency and intensity of such events are increasing because of climate
change (IPCC 2022).
These events have already caused enormous damage to infrastructure, ecosystems, lives, and livelihoods, and displaced thousands of people, and continue to be a stark reminder that it is poorer communities - women and young people, the unemployed, those living in informal settlements - that are most vulnerable to climate change.
Climate change also places significant stress on food security and South Africa’s already-constrained water resources, creating knock-on impacts in other sectors (DFFE 2019; NPC 2020).
Climate change exacerbates South Africa’s triple challenges of poverty, unemployment, and inequality. South Africa is one of the most unequal countries in the world; the divide between the rich and the poor is larger than ever; currently, the unemployment rate, at
over 35 percent, is at record levels (StatsSA 2022). The health impacts from the burning of fossil fuels (a major driver of climate change) also impacts poorer communities, further highlighting these inequities (Gray 2019; Madonsela et al. 2022).
The PCC’s community engagements in the early part of 2022 identified the hardships that many South Africans are experiencing.
Workers, jobseekers, and community members have spoken passionately and articulately about the unfairness of their current situations, the inequalities they experience, and their visions for a more equal and more inclusive society (PCC 2022).
At the same time the capacity of the state to respond to these challenges has never been weaker, and communities have expressed the view that the state is failing them.
It is in South Africa’s national interests to join the world in combating climate change, in accordance with national circumstances and development priorities. This is not only an environmental imperative, but an economic one too, as countries around the world start
to shift toward low-emissions policies, affecting global trade as well as demand for goods and resources.
Addressing climate change means strengthening adaptation measures to improve the resilience to immediate events (e.g., extreme weather, disasters) as well as long-term climatic shifts that impact water security, food security, and human health (DFFE 2019), with a particular focus on vulnerable groups, particularly rural communities, the poor, women, the youth, and children.
Addressing climate change also necessitates sharp reductions in greenhouse gas emissions - the harmful pollutants that drive climate change. The scale of the challenge also demands an effective State, significant government capacity, and trust among all stakeholders, which has been significantly eroded in recent years because of the loss of accountability and professional ethos linked to state capture (The Presidency 2022).
Tackling climate change will require urgent, significant, and transformational changes across all sectors of the South African economy.
It will require innovations in urban and infrastructure planning; a massive shift to clean energy sources; and changes to how we use our land, water, and obtain our food (IPCC 2022).
The changes will be difficult for some, particularly the workers and communities whose lives and livelihoods are tied to fossil fuel industries, as well as the women, the youth, and the poor, who are already disproportionately bearing the brunt of South Africa’s hardships and triple challenges.
Managing the transition will require strategies that both deal with the unavoidable burdens arising from the transition, as well as strategies that seize the opportunities offered by the green economy, with wide sharing of benefits.
People must be at the centre of the climate change response (ILO 2015; DFFE 2022). Indeed, the aim is a just transition: seizing the opportunities and managing the risks associated with climate change, with an overarching goal of improving the lives and livelihoods of ALL South Africans, particularly those most impacted.
The scope of a just transition is wide, both in the focus on people, and on the time scales of action and delivery.
- Read the entire presidential climate commission report.
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