Climate Change: South Africa’s Urgent Call to Action
Addressing Climate Change in South Africa
The availability of both past and current climate change literature shows that climate change is a major threat to South Africa and the measures that need to be taken to mitigate the effects of global warming.
It had not so long ago been regarded as a mere concept of great importance in South Africa. The recent paper by IPCC 6th Assessment Report is very evident that something must be done and it must be done now for the catastrophic future that awaits the nation due to global warming.
South Africa has submitted an updated NDC which shows a willingness to set higher level mitigation goals. The country targets for the total emission reduction of greenhouse gases to be within a range of 398 and 510 Mt CO2-eq in 2025.
Minister Creecy noted that this new plan is in line with the measures that seek to contain the increase of global temperatures.
Global warming effects are and are felt within agriculture, water sources, and public health. Frequent and severe disasters that include droughts and floods pose a critical challenge in as far as food security and human lives are concerned.
The government has also developed the National Climate Change Adaptation Strategy to address these impacts The government has also developed the National Climate Change Adaptation Strategy to address these impacts. Still, there are problems, the main of which is the continued use of coal and the lack of invested renewable electricity generation. Thus, only the prompt development of clean energy sources and further adjustment of infrastructure is likely to provide for sustainable progress in the future.
However, as South Africa continues to do battle with these challenges, raising and involving the community is key in creating communal action. In other words, it is possible to identify the directions that the development should take in order to become more environmentally friendly on the one hand while solving social injustice issues on the other hand.
