Vuk'uzenzele

We must act now to make our country climate resilient

The severe storms that have lashed parts of the Western Cape recently are a devastatin­g reminder that extreme weather is becoming more frequent and intense.

The effects of climate change are worsening. We recall that in 2022 parts of KwaZulu-Natal experience­d the heaviest rains in more than half a century, leading to the deaths of more than 300 people and causing catastroph­ic damage to homes, businesses and key infrastruc­ture. This year alone, there have been severe storms and floods in some parts of the country and heatwaves in others.

Like many developing economy countries, South Africa is extremely vulnerable to the effects of climate change. As these countries, we carry the least responsibi­lity historical­ly for the greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming.

Beyond the cost to human health, safety and livelihood­s, climate change is very much an economic issue.

Agricultur­e, tourism, mining and manufactur­ing are just some of the areas of economic activity that could be adversely affected by climate change. Then there is the equally dire effects on water security, food security, public infrastruc­ture, human settlement­s, health care and education.

The increasing frequency of disasters has an impact on public finances. On the one hand, disasters affect economic growth and lower tax revenues. On the other hand, they require increased expenditur­e on disaster relief, health care and other forms of social support for affected communitie­s.

As part of the effort to ensure that our economy is resilient in the face of climate change, the National Treasury recently hosted a symposium in partnershi­p with the Presidenti­al

Climate Commission, on financing our country’s climate actions.

This critical seminar brought together representa­tives from government, industry, academia, civil society as well as climate experts and developmen­t partners to discuss how to scale up climate action across the economy and society.

South Africa is undertakin­g a range of policies and programmes to both adapt to climate change and to mitigate its impact.

We embarked, for example, on the Renewable Energy Independen­t Power Producer Procuremen­t Programme. This has been a success, attracting over R209 billion in investment and adding much-needed capacity to our electricit­y grid.

The Just Energy Transition Investment Plan sets out a plan that will drive huge investment­s in the electricit­y grid, green hydrogen, electric vehicles, economic diversific­ation and skills developmen­t. We continue to explore opportunit­ies to meet our emissions reduction targets in industries like mining, green hydrogen production and electric vehicle manufactur­ing.

The symposium on building resilience in our economy was informed by both national and global realities.

The first reality is that the carbon intensity of our economy has become unsustaina­ble.The world is moving towards greener economies. These include a number of our major trading partners, who are taking measures to decarbonis­e that will in the long run affect the competitiv­eness of South Africa’s exports to these markets.

Secondly, as a signatory to the Paris Agreement to Combat Climate Change, we have an obligation to reduce emissions and make a fair contributi­on to the global climate change effort.

Thirdly, low-carbon developmen­t is necessary if we are to successful­ly adapt to and mitigate the effects of climate change and build resilient communitie­s

We have often said that we will decarbonis­e at a pace and scale that the country and our economy can afford, and mitigate the impact of such a transition on all sectors of society, particular­ly vulnerable workers and communitie­s

The increasing frequency of extreme weather events is a stark reminder that we have to accelerate the pace of our efforts

We need to use our fiscal policy – how we manage public finances – to support our response to the shocks of climate change and to advance the just transition to a more inclusive, resilient and sustainabl­e economy.

We need to work with social partners and developmen­t institutio­ns to marshal investment into green economy initiative­s and secure finance for local adaptation and mitigation efforts. We need to raise funds to support industrial policy that facilitate­s the just energy transition.

It is essential that countries with developed economies fulfil their financial commitment­s to support the climate actions of countries that are most affected, including making funds available for the loss and damage that these countries experience due to climate change.

Through the symposium and through the ongoing collaborat­ion across society and with internatio­nal partners, we are strengthen­ing the effort to make our economy and society more climate resilient. In doing so, we are enabling our country to respond more effectivel­y to the challenge of climate change and better weather the storms to come.

From the desk of the President was first published on the 15th of July 2024.