27 May 2008

By Emily Visser

LOCAL government "will engage on climate change for the first time" when Johannesburg hosts the first summit of this kind in the city. The summit takes place over two days, on 2 and 3 June, at the Nasrec exhibition centre, and precedes World Environment Day, usually celebrated on 5 June.

The theme for Johannesburg's summit is All hands on deck: towards a low carbon economy, which ties in with the World Environment Day theme for this year, Kick the habit! Towards a low carbon economy.

Most of South Africa's 283 municipalities will take the opportunity to thrash out policy and strategy solutions on this increasingly hot topic. "This will be the first time that local government will engage on climate change," confirms the City's executive director for environmental management, Flora Mokgohloa.

Her department is hosting the summit on behalf of the City; it expects an audience of 600 key decision makers, experts and local government role players in the field.

With the ongoing xenophobic attacks on foreigners in South Africa a concern, Mokgohloa has arranged for a special session to look at climate change and forced migration.

The climate change summit will explore ways of reducing emissions People migrate to other countries for a number of reasons, not only because of political instability in their home countries, she says. Food security is one such reason, she says, often brought about by climate change factors such as famine, floods and natural disasters.

Another key issue needing further clarity is carbon financing, as outlined by the framework of the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). Mokgohloa says the summit will boost understanding of this market and look at "how to access the carbon market system".

Carbon trading is complex. It entails countries and industries offsetting their carbon footprints, usually by investing in projects in developing countries. Speakers from the Carbon Trading Market and the Global Climate Change Institute, among others, will give local government a better grasp of this dense topic.

Some of the other confirmed speakers are Ira Magaziner, the chairman of the Clinton Climate Initiative, who will give an overview of the Large Cities Climate Leadership Group (C40); Mike Rabe, from the Watergy Foundation, an organisation working towards water and energy efficiency in municipal distribution systems; Shahib Chaudhry, from the California Energy Commission, speaking on energy conservation; and Roland Schulze, from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, who will speak on climate change and water resources in South Africa.

Mokgohloa expects the summit to deepen the dialogue on climate change, and following that, give rise to many new initiatives on local government level.

"We want to get guidance on practical implementation projects for climate change."

The host of World Environment Day 2008 is New Zealand. The initiative of the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP), in the past the day has touched on issues such as the state of the world's oceans and the melting ice cap. Since the early 1970s, the UNEP has worked to change people's attitude towards the Earth, with catchy themes such as Wanted! Seas and oceans - dead or alive; and Water - two billion people are dying for it.

Source: Joburg.org.za