Context
Climate change affects almost every aspect of daily life in South Africa. Extreme weather events such as drought and flooding affect the entire population, but most of all the poor.
South Africa is one of the 20 largest carbon dioxide (CO2) emitters in the world. As the domestic economy relies heavily on the production of electricity on coal and on liquid fuels, South Africa's per capita emissions are among the highest among developing countries.
As a signatory to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), South Africa is actively working to mitigate climate change impacts. For example, the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Contributions (NDCs) are in line with the country's commitment under the Copenhagen Accord to cut emissions by 34 percent by 2020 compared to the business as usual scenario and by 42 percent by 2025. These objectives also include the negative environmental impacts of land use, land use change and forestry (LULUCF).
Objective
South Africa can consistently develop and implement its national climate policy and plays a leading role in international climate negotiations.
Approach
The German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ) GmbH is working on behalf of the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) as part of the International Climate Initiative (IKI) with the implementation of the Climate Support Program (CSP). The CSP supports the development of climate policy and climate governance as well as their implementation in the areas of mitigation, adaptation, monitoring and evaluation.
GIZ assists its key political partner, the South African Ministry of the Environment (DEA), in developing strategies, scientific analysis, and managing and executing projects. Thus, South Africa is able to establish a legal framework within which appropriate national mitigation and adaptation measures can be effectively implemented.
The CSP supports the Ministry of the Environment in achieving the ambitious climate protection goals, and strengthens it in its catalytic function, which is important in order to involve subnational and national government agencies in the implementation of the so-called "flagship projects". These include the Ministry of Energy, the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Construction and the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.
In the earlier stages, the CSP has contributed to the development of national climate policy and to the preparation of a draft National Adaptation Strategy. The program has also helped to develop a national mitigation system that sets sectoral mitigation targets and sets greenhouse gas budgets for large companies. Scientific papers have been used to develop a set of core documents for the development of appropriate mitigation and adaptation strategies and measures.
Results achieved so far
The drafting of the Climate Change Act (National Climate Change Bill) has made significant progress in 2018. The public consultation processes in all nine provinces of the country have received technical and logistical support from the CSP, so that the national legal framework for climate policy can now be further developed.
The Department of the Environment is currently preparing a report on South Africa's post-2020 mitigation system. This report describes the planning, approach and methods for setting emission limits and greenhouse gas budgets for individual companies and the ministries for the various sectors.
Phase I of the Waste Management Flagship Program, commissioned by the Ministry of the Environment and GIZ's CSP, received a national award from the South African Institute of Civil Engineering (SAICE) in October 2017 in the category "Outstanding Civil Engineering Project in the Environmental engineering". The main objective of this program is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from landfilling.
One of the flagship programs' priorities is transport. The CSP supported the Ministry of Transport in developing an environmentally friendly transport strategy. Further planning is done in collaboration with the City of Johannesburg, which aims to promote environmental mobility concepts to protect the environment and ensure greater safety for commuters.
The CSP also contributed to the organization of the first BMU IKI Networking Workshop in South Africa in April 2018. The program acts as an interface for the ICI projects in the country and helps to coordinate the processes and actions with other bodies that carry out ICI projects in South Africa.
In addition, the Local Government Climate Change Support Program (LGCCSP) was supported by the CSP. The type and scope of support services required by local governments depended on the status and willingness of local authorities to take action to address climate change. During the course of the program, between July and September 2018, 40 workshops were held. A total of 1,236 stakeholders participated, including 647 municipal officers, as well as interested civil society professionals and institutions working with local authorities (such as the National Disaster Risk Management Board). The goals of the LGCCSP include building capacity for local authorities to develop adaptation measures, conduct vulnerability assessments on the impacts of climate change, and review existing strategies and action plans for adaptation to climate change.