Parties in climate denial
Local government is on the front line of the climate crisis. And it’s local government that can make or break initiatives tackling climate change.
Around the world, they are seen as key to the success of national climate strategies, with more than 70% of climate reduction measures and as much as 90% of climate adaptation measures undertaken by them, according to the United Nations Development Programme.
That’s because municipalities plan disaster risk reduction management responses against extreme weather; develop green infrastructure; implement waste reduction plans; source clean local energy, improve public transport and create green spaces.
Yet, there is a near-deafening silence in the election manifestos of the three main political polities — the ANC, the Democratic Alliance and the Economic Freedom Fighters — about climate action, environmental justice and a just transition to a low-carbon society.
They are in climate denial.
The ANC and DA manifestos mention climate change just once and, the EFF has a brief section on climate change and the environment, but environmental justice activists have described this as lacklustre.
Climate change is largely absent from the DA’S manifesto — other than in the mention of LED street lighting and recycled plastic roads in Jeffreys Bay — while the ANC’S manifesto gives a vague nod to “sustainability” and “green issues”. It promises to increase the share of renewable energy but lacks any ambitious goals for phasing out greenhouse gas-emitting fossil fuels. The EFF plans on giving businesses incentives to use clean energy and to install solar power on houses.
Worse still, the ANC, DA and EFF seem oblivious to the climate shocks hammering the region such as droughts, cyclonic storms and more frequent and intense heatwaves.
The recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns that in just a decade, the planet’s temperature will exceed a 1.5°C increase. For Southern Africa, which is warming at twice the global rate, this means at least a 3°C rise, which will collapse the maize and livestock sectors and dry out our limited water sources.
A new UN report ahead of COP26 climate talks warned that the climate promises by governments put the world on track for a temperature rise this century of at least 2.7°C, which will devastate our region.
South Africa faces crises such as hunger, poverty, unemployment, inequality, rampant corruption and the epic failure to deliver basic services — all of which are worsened by the climate crisis. People in rural areas are already living in a Day Zero, and subsistence farmers have had to stop farming because of the drought.
Yet our major political parties choose to be ignorant of the harmful effects of extreme weather and the importance of environmental integrity in delivering basic services.