Rhetoric or action: Are South African municipalities planning for climate change?

Abstract

In 2008 the South African National Disaster Management Centre commissioned a study into measures taken by local municipalities to plan for climate change. Two areas were selected for their dissimilar climatic challenges: the //Khara Hais Municipality,1 a semi-desert area in the Northern Cape Province plagued by droughts and severe weather events, and the George Municipality, an area in the Western Cape Province plagued by droughts, the rising sea level and flash floods. It was found that despite South African laws and regulations requiring local government to take action to reduce the risk of disasters, planning for climate change is still no more than sophisticated rhetoric in the two municipalities. This lack of urgency can be ascribed to local municipalities having other more pressing developmental priorities. It would, however, be short-sighted of municipalities not to plan for climate change, as major setbacks in hard-won economic and social development follow a disaster.

¹The // spelling represents the click consonant in the Kxoe language that the name comes from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki///Khara_Hais_Local_Municipality

Keywords:

• climate change adaptation
• climate change mitigation
• disaster risk reduction
• local government

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the South African National Disaster Management Centre for funding this research.

Notes

¹The // spelling represents the click consonant in the Kxoe language that the name comes from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki///Khara_Hais_Local_Municipality

²The // spelling represents the click consonant in the Kxoe language that the name comes from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki///Khara_Hais_Local_Municipality

³At local level we looked at Integrated Development Plans (IDPs) and Spatial Development Frameworks (SDFs); at district level IDPs, SDFs, Growth and Development Strategies (GDSs), Local Economic Development (LED) strategies and the State of the Environment Report; and at national level the Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan for the Western Cape Province.