Report on Gauteng Climate Change Forum Meeting
24 June 2015
1. Overview
The first Gauteng Climate Change Forum meeting took place on 24 June 2015 at the CSIR
Conference Centre, Pretoria. It was hosted by the City of Tshwane Sustainability week event.
The meeting was attended by representatives from the following organizations:
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City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality
City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality
Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality
Emfuleni Local Municipality
Sedibeng District Municipality
Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA)
Gauteng Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (GDARD)
Gauteng Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA)
Gauteng Department of Economic Development (GDED)
Gauteng Department of Roads and Transport (GDRT)
Council for Scientific Industrial Research (CSIR)
Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ)
ICLEI- Local Governments for Sustainability network
National Business Initiative
National Cleaner Production Centre (NCPC)
Independent consultant.
2. Purpose
The main purpose of the Forum is to create a platform for coordination between different
spheres of government and various stakeholders, to ensure mainstreaming of climate change
considerations and the responses to climate change.
The Province has made great strides in combating climate change, various Provincial
Departments and local authorities have strategies, plans, programmes and initiatives in place
to address climate change, including the Gauteng Climate Change Response Strategy
(GCCRS) 2011, prepared by the GDARD. However, an identified obstacle to combating
climate change effects was the absence of a platform at the Provincial level through which
climate change response efforts may be consolidated, and where possible aligned to achieve
greater results. To this end the Gauteng Climate Change Forum was established to fill this
void.
3. Objectives
The Gauteng Climate Change Forum seeks to address the following:
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Reporting to the Intergovernmental Committee on Climate Change (IGCCC),
National Climate Change Committee and other relevant structures;
Provide a platform for all relevant departments and local authorities to share
information on their various climate change-related policies and measures (including
strategies, plans, programmes, legislation, systems and projects);
Provide a platform for all relevant departments and local authorities to share
knowledge and build capacity through sharing information on forthcoming national,
regional and international climate change-related events and training courses;
Monitor and report progress on the implementation of various climate change-related
projects and initiatives in the province;
Initiate joint projects/initiatives/campaigns that impact on, or require the active
involvement of more than one department or local authority. This may take the form
of shared capacity, budgets, joint steering committees and other relevant co-operative
schemes;
Facilitate the implementation of all Climate Change Strategies and Plans within
Gauteng and to co-ordinate the regular review thereof; and
Act as a reference group to ensure consistent, integrated and coherent provincial
messaging for climate change-related outreach and awareness-raising activities.
4. Discussion
Major presentations that were delivered during the first meeting were:
A. National Climate Change Stakeholder Consultations - Pre-COP 21 preparation and
Communication of South Africa’s Intended Nationally Determined Contributions
(INDCs)
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Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) is the country’s intended
contribution, determined by the country nationally. It is a national contribution
towards meeting the global goal of combating Climate Change.
INDCs are vital to the 2015 agreement that will be reached in December 2015 in
Paris, France as the Kyoto Protocol is coming to an end in 2020.
SA has initiated a process of researching and preparing its INDCs. DEA will
consult with all Provinces to gather information/inputs that will inform SA’s
INDCs and position on COP 21 in general.
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The Provincial Stakeholder Consultation will take place on 26 August 2015.
B. National Climate Change Monitoring and Evaluation System and National Climate
Change Response Database
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The National Climate Change Response Monitoring & Evaluation System will
address four major areas: mitigation (or shift to low carbon economy), adaptation
(or building climate change resilience), Climate Change financing and knowledge
sharing. The objectives of the system are amongst other things: to provide
evidence base of the impact of climate change in South Africa, inform response to
climate change: scope of measures and their effectiveness, institutionalize
reporting of South Africa’s reporting obligations in international Forums; e.g.
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), inform
SA negotiators under the UNFCCC, and support identification of resource
requirements, allocations & opportunities in climate change response.
In essence, the National Climate Change Response Monitoring & Evaluation
System will be a “One-stop shop” of climate change information in South Africa
and eventually integrate or link all relevant databases of sector departments and
agencies and different spheres of government.
The National Climate Change Response Database is the functional web-based
database where Climate Change Project managers can record details of their
projects (see attached or http://nccrd.environment.gov.za/deat/). It will be in future
incorporated into fully-fledged Monitoring & Evaluation System.
C. Flagship Programmes and Climate Change Funding
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Flagship programmes are programmes designed to play a transitional role in the
shift to a more resilient and lower carbon economy was also presented.
Key sources of finance include the UNFCCC financial mechanisms such as the
Green Climate Fund and Adaptation Fund, Non-UNFCCC financial mechanisms
such as the Multilateral Development Banks (e.g. World Bank and African
Development Bank) and UN Agencies (e.g. UNDP and UNEP) and Bilateral
Country Funds. Application for funding must be done through the focal point. i.e.
DEA, DBSA or SANBI.
D. Provincial Climate Change Projects.
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All municipalities and Gauteng Provincial Departments presented a list of climate
change projects that are underway. Notable projects include Industrial Symbiosis
project between GDARD, GDED and NCPC, Non-Motorised Transport projects
by City of Tshwane and GDRT, Solar Water Geyser rollout by City of Tshwane,
feasibility studies on Waste to energy project in Sedibeng and West Rand by
GDED and Sustainable Resource Management Projects by GDARD.
5. Key Resolutions
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Members of the Forum to comment on the Draft Terms of Reference and logo for the
Forum.
The Forum to ensure a wide range of stakeholders be part of the National Climate
Change Stakeholder Consultation for the COP 21 and INDCs.
GDARD to distribute a template to members to be populated with a complete list of
Climate Change relevant projects (including the ones reported at the Forum). This
information will be used as a provincial climate change response register for
information sharing and potential upscaling.
Members are asked to come up with feasible flagship project (consider possibility of
joint projects) to be implemented within the Gauteng City Region for discussion in
subsequent meetings or bilateral meetings.