Climate Smart Cape Town Campaign

2011/09/02

The start of September saw the official launch of the Cape Town Climate Change Coalition’s "Climate Smart Cape Town Campaign". The focus of the campaign is to help residents of Cape Town learn about climate change and how they can take action, as well as to learn about the actions already being taken by the City of Cape Town and other leading public and private sector organisations to mitigate and adapt to climate change.

Executive Mayor Patricia de Lille said at the launch “the campaign is to ensure an understanding of climate change in order to determine the future development of the City. If we carry on in ‘business as usual’ mode in the knowledge that climate change impacts, including increased droughts, storm surges, sea-level rise and increased floods, will be a reality in future decades, we will be rightfully accused of negligence by our grandchildren. And so we will be looking to build a more compact and resource efficient City and to use the energy behind this campaign to create awareness and robust discussion."

The initiative is headed by 23 partner organisations that first came together to bid for the hosting of UNFCCC COP17/CMP7 in Cape Town. ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability – Africa, as one of the coalition partners, participated in the launch on 1 September 2011 and demonstrated its commitment to support the campaign during a signing ceremony of the campaign charter.

For more on the campaign, visit www.climatesmartcapetown.co.za