By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
President Cyril Ramaphosa says South Africa is enhancing its efforts to address climate change by introducing the Climate Change Response Fund aimed at fostering collaboration between government and the private sector.
Writing in his weekly newsletter, Ramaphosa said the fund would seek to mobilise public and private finances to build greater climate resiliency, amid a rise in deadly extreme weather events and increased loss and damage to domestic infrastructure.
“This includes climate-proofing existing essential infrastructure and facilities such as water and food systems, roads, rail and ports, human settlements and health care.
“The fund will also collaborate with a variety of partners to respond to immediate needs in communities following climate change-related disasters,” he added.
The fund has been developed following the decision at COP28, which took place in the United Arab Emirates last year, to operationalise a Loss and Damage Fund, as well as the African Union Commission’s establishment of a Climate Finance Unit in recognition of the continent’s “extreme vulnerability to the effects of global warming”.
While highlighting wildfires in the Western Cape, heatwaves in the Northern Cape, continuing drought conditions in the Eastern Cape and intense storms in Gauteng, the President’s letter also noted the reoccurence of flooding this year “even before we could properly recover and rebuild after the 2022 floods in KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape and North West”.
“The insurance industry is warning about the increasing costs of disaster risk finance, and even talking about the prospect of highly vulnerable regions eventually becoming uninsurable.”
The Climate Change Response Fund would form part of what was described as a “comprehensive response to climate change” that included both adaptation and measures to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions.
The new fund would focus on adaptation, while the mitigation measures would be coordinated under the banner of the Just Energy Transition Investment Plan.
Speaking at a Presidential Climate Commission meeting last week, Forestry, Fisheries and theEnviroment Minister Barbara Creecy said the Climate Change Response Fund would be a “channel” for financial resources that could be made available to developing countries following the recent operationalisation of a Loss and Damage Fund.
Creecy said consideration was being given to hosting the fund either at the Development Bank of Southern Africa or the Industrial Development Corporation but provided no timeframe from its implementation.
She also confirmed that government would set aside some rsources to capitalise the fund but indicated that the intention was to also crowd-in private finance in a manner similar to the Solidarity Fund that was set up during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Ramaphosa committed to continue to campaign against the implementation of climate and environment based unilateral actions, policies and taxes and their potential impacts on African exports and trade.
“Climate change is a global problem and as such, requires collective global action that is sustainable, that takes the differing circumstances and capabilities of countries into account, and that above all, leaves no-one behind, “Ramaphosa said.