End littering and clean up our hoods

Mayor De Lille and world leaders at all levels recommit to Paris climate change accord

TODAY the Cape Argus launches the #CleanYourHood campaign as people across the globe mark World Environment Day.

Cape Town is regarded as one of the most beautiful cities in the world, but it has several challenges. We believe one of those is overcoming littering, dumping and the destruction of the environment.

In many of our neighbourhoods, particularly in our disadvantaged communities, dumping and littering take place without a second thought. There is also total disregard for the environment.

#CleanYourHood is a clarion call to all Capetonians to do what they can to keep neighbourhoods clean.

The call is an appeal for residents to become more civil minded and to be conscious of the environment.

As part of the #CleanYourHood initiative we invite people to write to us, send in pictures or videos of their neighbourhood before and after it has been cleaned up.

Also write in if you can offer advice or share tips on how to stop dumping and littering.

With the support of Peninsula Beverages, prizes will be offered.

They may be in the form of vouchers for cleaning tools or gardening items, and equipment will be offered to neighbourhoods being cleaned up and kept clean by residents.

This newspaper will publish your stories and pictures. We also invite schools, community organisations and religious groups to take part. We invite Cape Town’s business community to join the campaign by “adopting” streets in disadvantage areas. While the authorities can do more to clean up our communities, we believe all of us, young and old, should shoulder some responsibility for keeping our city clean and to protect the environment.

WORLD political, business and community leaders have reiterated their commitment to the Paris climate change accord in spite of the US government’s regressive decision to withdraw from the agreement.

In a nod to World Environment Day today, Mayor Patricia De Lille said the region’s drought conditions had put climate change and the need for sustainable actions into sharp focus.

As a signatory to the C40 Mayors Accord, De Lille said: “As mayors and climate leaders, we see every day the scale of the threat posed by climate change and the impact that it has on the lives of our residents.

“Gradual change and incremental reforms to energy markets, transport systems, and recycling rates are no longer enough.

“Every resident, business leader, president, prime-minister and mayor must seize this moment to transform our cities. By doing that, we can transform our world,” said De Lille.

Pick n Pay chairman Gareth Ackerman, who is also co-chairman of the global Consumer Goods Forum (CGF) that comprises 400 global retailers, manufacturers and service providers that employ 100 million people directly and indirectly in 70 countries, with a collective sales turnover of €3.5 trillion (R50 trillion), said they would continue on their path of environmental rejuvenation.

He said CGF members, some of the US’s largest retailers and manufacturers “have committed themselves to key deliverables on climate change” which include achieving zero deforestation by 2020 and focusing on the “sourcing of key commodities – palm oil, soy, paper and pulp and beef ”.

“Our industry globally has also acknowledged its responsibility to phase out ozone depleting substances and is taking action to move to natural refrigerant alternatives, with the CGF board passing a resolution to begin phasing out hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) and calling for HFC inclusion in the Montreal Protocol,” said Ackerman

“Our members have also committed to working together to halve food waste by 2025 and as part of an international partnership the CGF has helped contribute to the first-ever global standard to measure food loss and waste.”

Billionaire climate advocate David Bloomberg, speaking on behalf of partnership mayors, governors, and business leaders from both political parties in the US, said they would remain part of the Paris Agreement and they would meet their targets promised in 2015.

French President Emmanuel Macron said that when it came to climate change there can be “no plan B because there is no planet B”.