Chris Hani District Municipality - Climate Change Summit 2012
2012/02/29

The Chris Hani District Municipality (CHDM), in the Eastern Cape, South Africa, conducted its first ever Climate Change Summit this week from 27-29 February 2012. This summit was held as a direct outcome of the exposure they received and the energy imbued from the Durban Local Government Convention side event at COP17 in Durban in December, 2011 which was coordinated and led by ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability.

The Executive Mayor Councillor Muxolisi Koyo of the CHDM is championing climate change to be of critical importance in the DM and the eight local municipalities found within the DM. The honourable Mayor expressed that this district is severely underdeveloped, with high poverty, unemployment and lack of skills. Simultaneously it is suffering from extreme weather conditions such as fire, snow and floods.

The district municipality has already made great strides towards starting to assess its climate change impacts and vulnerabilities. As a testimony to the importance of the climate change agenda within the district, there was a large and diverse audience in attendance at the summit, including: the executive mayor and honourable mayors from the DM’s eight local municipalities; councillors; directors and managers from numerous technical departments; as well as SALGA; Eastern Province representatives; WESSA; Peoples Power Africa; GIZ; members of the media and many more.

Representatives from the ICLEI – Africa Secretariat were invited to present on the following three topics:

i) climate change adaptation and cities within Southern Africa;

ii) disaster risk reduction as related to climate change at a local level, and

iii) presentation of ICLEI tools as related to climate change and sustainability.

The opening remarks and presentations set the scene for a vibrant and informative summit. Councillor Matiwaneweni from Queenstown Municipality opened with stating that “We are taking our environment seriously, that climate change is everyone’s business and we are all directly affected by it. As inhabitants of the earth we need to all take responsibility and to rely on each other”. Mthobeli Kolisa, the executive director of municipal infrastructure services, climate change and environment, SALGA, set the scene of local government action on climate change. This was then followed by a spirited and energetic call to action by four students from the Maria Louw High School in Queenstown. Their input was invaluable and a wake-up call to everyone in attendance, given their high level of understanding of climate change science and the impact that their generation will suffer.

Presentations were also given on:

i) small scale agro-ecological benefits for rural development (Mark Wells – Peoples power Africa);

ii) climate change impacts in the Eastern Cape (Dr Allen Carter – CES);

iii) climate change and health adaptation (Mr Selva Moodley – SAIEH);

iv) The Three Crowns ‘rural sustainability commons blue print’ pilot project (Francois Nel – CHDM and Philip Wilkinson – WESSA);

v) the role of environmental education in climate change (Ms Lulama – Department of Environmental Affairs);

vi) the scientific aspects of climate change, impacts on sectors and adaptation options (Professor Roland Schulze – University of KwaZulu Natal); 

vii) the national climate change response strategy (Mr Vuyusani Sikobi – DEA);

viii) the impacts of acid mine drainage in South Africa (Mariette Lieferink – environmental activist);

ix) Eastern Cape Sustainable Energy Strategy (Allistair McMaster DEDEA – Eastern Cape).

In addition to the above presentations a field trip was taken to the Three Crowns pilot project. This has been earmarked as a provincial flagship project which CHDM is aiming to roll out. The project has already won seven local and international awards for innovation.

The way forward from this summit is to formally launch a CHDM environmental and climate change forum and table the drafting of resolutions and signing of a comtiment by all the mayors.