City of Cape Town wins in Climate Change Leadership Awards
2012/04/02
Significantly greater response to the threats of climate change resulted in the toughest year yet for judges of the Climate Change Leadership Awards, who announced the 10 category winners at a carbon neutral event in Sandton last night. This green competition and awards is the first in Africa to recognise, reward, motivate and celebrate businesses, communities, youth, schools and individuals leading the way in climate change response and mitigation.
“These third annual awards demonstrate that they are achieving their desired result with improved quality of entries from schools, greater diversity from individuals and communities, and growing carbon offset innovation from SMEs,” said Jeunesse Park, founder of Food & Trees for Africa and the CCLA. “The Local Municipalities category, however, had a unanimously clear winner and the private sector are growing from strength to strength in their efforts to deal with climate risks and opportunities.”
At the ceremony Andile Ncontse of Litha Communications announced the evolution to the continent wide Climate Hero Awards Africa, which will kick off on October 1, 2012, World Habitat Day.
“The Climate Hero Awards Africa has its origins in the resounding success of the Climate Change Leadership Awards,” said Ncontse. “As a continental response to climate mitigation, the Awards were established with the realisation that tackling the climate change challenge cannot be confined to artificial borders but require a concerted effort from all stakeholders in society across the continent.”
The Municipality of Cape Town was the runaway winner of the new Local Municipalities category for its long term sustainability strategy, a string of deployed initiatives, and setting the national example. A special mention goes to eThekwini Municipality which implemented a range of activities throughout the past year.
