Welcome Address to the City of Cape Town Climate Change Think Tank
By the Executive Deputy Mayor, Alderman Ian Neilson
10 February 2011
Good Morning Ladies & Gentlemen.
Welcome to the City Council. I trust you will find today’s proceedings of great interest.
A special word of welcome to our guests from outside the City:
Representative of the Royal Dutch Embassy, the generous funder of our research project.
Researchers and presenters here today.
City officials who have managed the process of the Think Tank.
We are here to discuss what Climate Change means for the people of the Cape
Town.
Ossie Asmal will shortly provide an overview of the research and of the Think
Tank, which takes us on a few first steps towards understanding what we as the City government need to do to respond to climate change and its causes.
It is becoming more evident every day that cities are where the action on climate change needs to take place.
Cities are the biggest consumers of energy and resources. If progress is to be made on reducing environmental footprints, action in cities will have the biggest effect.
The impacts of climate change on humanity are potentially highest in cities due obviously to the density of people and their general lack of attention or knowledge on where and how they locate themselves. One has only to think of recent events in Louisiana and Brisbane to understand some impact of extreme weather events. But we should not only focus on extreme events.
We need to also carefully consider the slower processes that may come to us

2 over a generation or more, where the impacts may be gradual or eventually catastrophic.
The last major global warming period at the end of the last ice age transformed our world. Some major changes were within a generation or two, as archaeologists are increasingly able to explain to us. Sea level rise in the century following 7500 BC were around 30 mm per year……. Does that number sound familiar? Change mostly was gradual. High tides became higher, and then refused to retreat. The ground became soggier. Trees died and slowly the landscape changed.
But the sea level rise also triggered massive events.
One day close to 7000 BC a massive submarine landslide occurred between the coasts of Norway and Iceland, which created a massive tsunami. More than
17 000 cubic kilometres of sediment was dumped across the eastern coast of
Scotland, which even today remains buried below towns and farms.
Around 6000 BC, the Mediterranean filled above the base level of the
Bosphorus channel and spilled over into the Black Sea, which was at that time an isolated freshwater lake. Salty water crashed through with the force of two hundred Niagara Falls. The roar would have been heard 100 km away. In places the shoreline advanced by a kilometre a day. Within months, 100 000 square kilometres of lakeside habit was lost, equal approximately to the size of the Western Cape. In one generation, the world of the Mesolithic people around the Black Sea changed completely. One can only imagine the enduring impact that had on the psyche of the people affected. People then probably had little idea of the physical processes at work. They probably responded to the changes by making sacrifices of their children to appease the gods.
In North America, as the ice sheet melted, it formed enormous lakes that covered large parts of the continent. Lake Agassiz appeared about 12000 BC, it covered 350 000 square kilometres and lasted for 4000 years. But when the ice block was finally breached, it drained into the St Laurence River and then the North Atlantic. It probably had a catastrophic effect on the circulation of ocean waters and may have influenced the climate.

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We have had 10 000 years of a relatively stable global climate. But it seems that may be at an end. This time we cannot have the excuse that we don’t know what is happening. We may no longer sacrifice our children, but we also cannot sacrifice their futures because we did not respond adequately.
Unfortunately, although we may understand the general pattern, we do not have enough information on detail. We need through adequate research to inform ourselves better. And the City of Cape Town Think Tank is part of the city’s response to ensure that we have that better information.
We need accurate information so that we take appropriate action, but also so that we avoid unnecessary actions which unnecessarily limit our economic growth. I believe that, with proper research and coordination, we can find the kind of sustainable economic development that is carried out with a reduced carbon and ecological footprint.
I have had the privilege in the past three months to attend two international events focussed on Climate Change.
At the World Mayors Summit on Climate in Mexico City, last November, world
Mayors and their representatives came together to sign the Global Cities
Covenant on Climate, branded as ”The Mexico City Pact”. I signed that pact on behalf of Cape Town, with the mandate of the Mayoral Committee.
I will not read the full pact, but it includes commitments to:

Voluntarily reduce our local greenhouse gas emissions

Adopt & implement local climate mitigation measures

Develop local adaptation strategies

Register our emission inventories and adaptation measures
Cape Town is one of the first cities to report our climate data on the carbon n
Cities Climate Registry.
Council has implemented a number of clean energy and other climate mitigation programs.
Today we will look more closely at our adaptation strategies. I look forward to hearing the results of the research.

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It is clear to me that many cities around the world are now focussing on their climate strategies and that the cities may in many respects be ahead of their national governments on this matter.
Cape Town is determined to take a lead where it is appropriate for us to do so.
Our overall objective is to have successful, sustainable economic growth that builds not only the living standards of the current generation, but also the platform for future generations.
I trust that today will be a useful contribution towards the decisions we need to take to achieve that vision.
Thank you very much.