state of city finances
Financing climate adaptation and resilience in South African cities Southern Africa is one of the world’s regions that will be most affected by climate change (IPCC, 2014). South Africa, a signatory to the Paris Agreement under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), has set ambitious mitigation targets for curbing emissions by 34% by 2020 and 42% by 2025 (DEA, 2015). The country’s climate change position is situated in the Constitution, the National Development Plan, the National Climate Change Response Strategy (NCCRS) and the Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) We extend our thanks to the South African Cities Network for the following extracts. Click on the cover image above to download the entire report. SACN. 2018. State of City Finances Report 2018. Johannesburg: SACN ISBN: 978-0-6399215-2-5. © 2018 by the South African Cities Network. The State of South African Cities Report is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution – Non-Commercial – Share-Alike 4.0 International Licence. To view a copy of this licence, visit creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0.
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he INDC contains a strong adaptation component, including the development of a National Adaptation Strategy. Climate adaptation and resilience objectives may also be integrated into agriculture, water and biodiversity sector plans and policies. At the local government level, municipalities outline climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies in their integrated development plans (IDPs), spatial development frameworks (SDFs) and climate adaptation and vulnerability assessments. Some South African cities are also signatories to local government climate change initiatives, such as the C40 and 100 Resilient Cities project. To transition to a low-carbon, climateresilient economy will require a combination of mitigation, adaptation and resilience measures. ●● Mitigation refers to reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and enhancing sinks that take up GHG (IPCC, 2014). ●● Adaptation refers to the actions taken to prevent or minimise damages from the consequences of climate impacts (ibid).
Key messages South Africa is one of the countries most affected by climate change, facing climate risks of floods, drought and heat stress, resulting in economic losses, which are amplified in cities. Investing in adaptation and resilience can potentially reduce these losses by up to 80%, but cities find it hard to access finance for this purpose. To access multilateral climate funds, cities need to partner with national and regional governments, and National Treasury should integrate climate change objectives into future infrastructure and development grants to cities. ●● Resilience is a concept within adaptation and refers to the ability to withstand the impacts of climate hazards. It allows for an asset to maintain its performance despite the potential impacts of climate change (Brugmann, 2011). Adaptation is broader than resilience and is focused on mitigating specific risks that may not be related to the overall performance of a particular asset or system. An example of a mitigation project is a solar power plant that results in avoided emissions, whereas rehabilitating coastal dune systems to protect the shoreline from storm surges would be categorised as an
adaptation initiative. The rehabilitation of wetland systems could be considered a cross-cutting project, as restoring these ecosystems increases carbon sequestration (adaptation), and reduces flood risk to communities living within the floodplains, which strengthens resilience. Addressing climate change requires significant financial resources. Despite the Paris Agreement, accessing financing for adaptation and resilience is difficult. Adaptation finance is “finance – public or private, international or domestic – that specifically targets development that reduces climate risk, thereby realising climate resilience objectives” (Pillay et al., 2017: 11). In 2017, adaptation finance accounted for US$22-billion, while SOUTH AFRICAN PROPERTY REVIEW
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