Ramaphosa’s acknowledgement that climate change poses a crisis must be acted on now

TUCKED away on page 10 of the Business Report on Monday was a great piece by Dineo Faku on President Cyril Ramaphosa’s acknowledgement that climate change indeed posed a crisis for our country.

The move by the government to develop “detailed plans to enable a just transition to a low-carbon economy” is good news, except that it omitted to point out that urgency must be the driving force.

Eskom, as we all know by now, is a disaster in many respects.

According to the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, “Eskom emits more sulphur dioxide than the entire power sector of the EU, US and China combined”. What a disgrace.

We must all hope that the president will make it his duty to ensure that the electricity sector becomes the first to decarbonise, and do so in a hurry.

In also accepting that climate change presented serious health, environmental and economic risks for the country and South Africans, the president is helping to focus national attention on what has become an enormous existential threat to all of us.

Seeing how important the climate emergency is to the country, and especially to coastal cities like Cape Town, one would have expected political parties to come out very strongly on measures they will support to ameliorate the climate emergency, and how they will support the redesign of infrastructure layout to ensure resilience.

We can’t wait for a disaster to strike and then begin the clean up and major policy revision.

Being on the back foot will be a double whammy in respect of costs.

First, all of the damage will have to be repaired and resources that should have gone into new infrastructure will be used up replacing what was damaged.

Second, citizens will have to carry the additional costs for restoration work and the rehabilitation of infrastructure.

We as political parties and independents, therefore, should be making the climate emergency a very important issue in the coming election.

Cope, the record over the past five years will show, is by far and away the most committed to addressing the issue of the climate emergency with the urgency and focus it demands.

Voters should use their votes to demand the kind of attention that councillors will have to give to the climate emergency that is confronting us, in the next five years.

FAROUK CASSIM Cope