KZN to ‘mainstream’ efforts to mitigate climate change

14th August 2019

By: African News Agency

  

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KwaZulu-Natal will be mainstreaming efforts to mitigate climate change in the province following several years of its deadly and costly results, premier Sihle Zikalala said on Wednesday.

Zikalala was delivering the opening address at the provincial climate change and sustainable development summit held at Durban’s Olive Convention Centre on Wednesday. The summit ends on Thursday. 

“We must mainstream climate change mitigation and adaption in local government and economic development plans and we must mainstream it in education and training curricula to ensure that it becomes the new normal,” said Zikalala.

Local government was the “coalface” of service delivery but was also where climate change was most felt, he said.

This meant that climate change had to be central to integrated development plans for local municipalities. Technologies that should be used to mitigate the effects included solar power, solar heaters, wind power, rainwater tanks, conversion of waste to energy and greening, among others.

KwaZulu-Natal has experienced deadly storms and flooding this year and in the past.

In April, 71 people died and thousands were displaced following severe flooding in the province.

While poorly built housing and infrastructure has been blamed for several collapses that led to myriad deaths in the province and eThekwini Municipality – where the bulk of the deaths and devastation were recorded – Zikalala also said climate change was partially responsible.

Damage in the April floods was estimated to be over R1-billion. President Cyril Ramaphosa declared a provincial disaster when he visited the aftermath, which allowed for funding to be fast tracked for emergency efforts.

Zikalala said the effects of climate change on the globally renowned annual sardine run were also tangible. The sardine run was first reported in The Mercury in 1853, he said, but given the warming of the ocean, the shoals had decreased in size and in some years the fish did not put in an appearance.

There were “non-runs” in 2003 and 2006, said Zikalala, and scientific research between 1946 and 2012 revealed that there was a “1.3 day per decade delay”.

Zikalala said government and citizens should be “united” when tackling global warming.

He said the two-day summit would seek to explore options for a “carbon free future”, outline the province’s response to climate change and sustainable development, look at collaborative funding for climate change mitigation and reconstitute the provincial disaster management advisory forum.

The provincial council on climate change and sustainable development would also be re-launched, he said.

Edited by African News Agency

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