While South Africa undertakes national interventions to meet greenhouse gas emission targets, President Cyril Ramaphosa cited the need for local government to focus on integrating climate change considerations into service delivery planning.

Delegates from across the world are gathering in Scotland for the COP26 United Nations (UN) Climate Change Conference to accelerate action towards achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Ramaphosa said the agreements made at COP26 would affect the daily lives of all South Africans.

“At local government level, we need to integrate climate change considerations into service delivery planning. This needs to be in areas such as the design of human settlements, in energy management through solar water heating for low-income households, and in the use of renewable energy in municipal water and wastewater infrastructure,” he explained.

KwaZulu-Natal is already piloting landfill gas to electricity, biomass, biogas and small-scale hydro power, while the City of Cape Town launched the pilot phase of a floating solar power plant at a wastewater treatment works, last month.

Ramaphosa says recent electricity regulation amendments that will allow municipalities to buy and generate their own power will result in an uptake of renewable energy technologies over time.

Beyond energy considerations, South Africa is also looking at air pollution, which is a serious threat to communities in areas of industrial activity.

Communal food gardens, recycling, environmental conservation, as well as water and waste management are also priorities for government

“It is our expectation that as we are playing our part in the global climate change effort and have raised the level of our ambition, other nations should so the same. We will also affirm our position that developed countries have a responsibility to assist developing countries to adapt to and mitigate the effects of climate change,” Ramaphosa said.