SA climate change all in the bag for Creecy and BCM, but activists dispute their claims

Liars — this is what United Nations secretary-general António Guterres has called polluting nations and corporations after the release of the IPCC’s (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) mitigation of climate change report.

The report released last month found that emissions are to rise 14% instead of dropping to the much-vaunted zero by mid-century.

The report revealed a “litany of broken climate promises, a file of shame, cataloguing the empty pledges that put us on track towards an unlivable world”, Guterres said.

“We are on a fast track to climate disaster, major cities underwater, unprecedented heatwaves, terrifying storms, widespread water shortages and the extinction of a million species of plants and animals.

“And this is not fiction or exaggeration; it is what science tells us will result from our current energy policy.

“We are on a pathway to global warming of more than double the 1.5-degree limit agreed on in Paris. Simply put, they are lying.”

Last Friday Barbara Creecy, minister of forestry, fisheries and the environment, in answering questions from EFF MP Mathibe Mohlala, said: “The collective contribution of (the SA government’s) policy instruments has to a greater extent lessened the affects of climate change in the society.”

Charles Simane, a leading member of the SA Climate Justice Charter Movement, disagreed, saying her policies were a big failure.

“They fail to put the country on a climate emergency footing, they fail to advance proactive climate mitigation measures, fail to accelerate climate resilient infrastructure and early warning systems, fail to give a clear deep just transition path, fail to address the real issues that communities face like floods or droughts and, frankly, they don’t appreciate the urgency of the crisis at hand,” he said.

Creecy said her department was applying international trends of sustainable development to address climate change and was including affects in their mainstream policies, strategies and plans.

The government, she said, was promoting a just transition to a low carbon climate resilient pathways.

There were plans to promote a circular economy, massive recycling and sustainable consumption.

Special mention was made of government contributing to the financial sector in easing the risk of climate change.

She said all 44 metros and district municipalities had climate response plans to include in their integrated development plans.

Buffalo City Metro spokesperson Sam Ngwenya said stakeholder workshops were planned to finalise the disaster risk management policy framework for approval by the BCM council.

BCM was in the process of revising the disaster risk management policy at a time when the frequency and intensity of weather-related disasters was increasing and lives and livelihoods would be impacted, Ngwenya said. Adapting to climate change was central to disaster risk management. 

He said new obligations for municipal departments would be guided by the Disaster Management Act.

This process of disaster risk reduction started in 2015 and included emphasis on vulnerable people and impact-based weather forecasting. 

He said the policy would improve the integrated and co-ordinated management of hydro meteorological, geological, biological, technological and environmental disasters in BCM.

Simane accused the government of lip service, without concrete actions based on the urgency of climate science reflected in the sixth assessment report of the IPCC.

“By 2025 our water supply will outstrip demand and, according to a new report by the World Meteorological Organisation, there’s a high possibility we can reach a global average temperature increase of 1.5° within the next five years,” he said.

“This isn’t the time for piecemeal approaches and sloganeering around the climate crisis; it’s time for concrete actions and her department has failed on that.

“Our energy is heavily dependent on fossil fuels, yet renewable energy producers are facing staggering red tape and struggling to connect to the national grid.

“Our transport is carbon intensive with no foreseeable steps to change that.

“Our agriculture is heavily reliant on agro chemicals inputs and intensive water use; it’s not sustainable in the context of the climate crisis.

“The 2021 nationally determined contributions to reducing emissions, though a bit ambitious, failed to provide a path below the 1.5° degree mark; instead they will lead to global average temperature increases of 4.2°.”

DA MP Dave Bryant said: “Government cannot pretend that the legislation enacted thus far has had any significant impact on reducing the affects of climate change, especially while they continue to relentlessly promote coal-powered energy.

“It is also worth noting the further extension granted to the mining sector to ensure their environmental compliance.”

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