Programme Director
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen
It gives me great pleasure to be addressing you this morning.
Exactly two weeks ago, on the 5th of November, we celebrated National Children’s Day. This year’s theme for this day event says “We are the world, plant a tree and save the earth”. The theme is an unequivocal call to our children to play their part in saving our planet. It is also a call to the adult world to facilitate the active participation of children in discussions and campaigns around climate change.
Through that event, we sought to motivate the nation to ensure that more trees are planted for the enhancement of our own environments, because it is in these environments that we raise our children, and we believe that children are our future.
The challenge of climate change has captured the imagination of the entire world. It is crucial that we remain a central part of this international campaign to ensure that all children around the world are treated according to the norms set in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and all Africa’s children according to the African Charter on the rights and welfare of the Child.
Climate change poses unprecedented challenges to the human race. It remains one of the defining challenges of the twenty-first century that affects children all over the world. In many countries around the world, the climate change continues to affect ecosystems as well as livelihoods.
Constituting nearly a third of the world’s population and not carrying the responsibility for the causal processes of climate change, children stand to be the most severely affected by climate change. A combination of climate change and other drivers of poverty are likely to have major negative effects on child well-being and the realisation of their rights.
To effectively confront the threat posed by this phenomenon requires the determined and collective efforts of all of us. As we launch the report on “Exploring the impact of climate change on children in South Africa”, we do so mindful of our responsibility to bequeath to our future generations an environment that will continue to be conducive to the sustenance of human life.
This report comes at an appropriate time. We are launching only a few days before the start of COP17. We hope that it will help to ensure that children’s issues and rights are part of the COP17. What makes this report unique and of great value, is that it focuses specifically on the impact of climate change on children. It is an important resource for policy makers and implementers to ensure that children remain central to the climate change discussion.
We have nowhere to run to. The earth is our home. We must therefore to everything possible to protect our earth and the environment. We have a responsibility to do this for the sake of our children who will be inheriting this earth.
Programme Director, the burden of dealing with the impact of climate change will not be distributed evenly across society. Children represent nearly forty percent of South Africa’s population and are one of the social groups most vulnerable to the impact of climate change. Our children not only stand to be the most severely affected by climate change, they are also future leaders and citizens who will have to live with and manage its consequences.
It is our view that the voices of children must be heard on climate change. Children have the right to take part in public life and to be heard on issues that affect their life, such as climate change. This right to participation is enshrined in international human rights treaties, such as the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, as well as the South African Constitution and Children’s Act. Nonetheless, children do not feature much in the discourse on climate change.
The reality of climate change is staring us menacingly on the face. South Africa’s climate is already changing. Observation records show that the country has experienced trends of increasing average annual temperatures and slight decreases in average annual rainfall from 1970 to 1990.
More noticeable to South Africans is the increasing trend in daily temperature extremes and the number of days and nights perceived as ‘hot’. Sea levels are rising around the South African coast, in agreement with current global trends. Some studies also suggest that the intensity and frequency of extreme storms are increasing.
Scientists are able to project South Africa’s climate in the future by using climate models. Climate impacts are expected to be completely different from one end of the country to the other. All regions are likely to be warmer in the future, although warming is expected to be greater inland than in the coastal regions. There will be a substantial increase in the frequency of ‘hot’ days and nights.
Projections predict increases in mean annual rainfall in the east and central provinces, with sharp decreases in certain corners of the west of South Africa. Generally, there will be increases in rainfall variability countrywide, with consequences for the incidence of flood and drought events.
Having depicted that reality, the question that we must explore and confront is: “What is the impact of climate change on South Africa’s children? Indeed, without effective and sustained action to promote adaptation across scales, South Africa’s changing climate is likely to have profound implications for children’s health, nutrition, education, emotional and social well-being.
The main projected impacts on children vary according to the provinces where children are located but, in all cases, will have greater negative effects on children living in situations of poverty or marginalisation, given their higher exposure to risk and lower adaptive capacity.
Without adequate adaptation responses, the incidence of vector-borne diseases such as malaria is likely to increase along the country’s north-east borders. Infectious diseases such as diarrhoea may become more frequent in the north-east and east. Incidence of respiratory diseases can be aggravated by pollution and poor air quality, linked to higher temperatures, particularly in the central provinces.
Climate change impacts on food security and nutrition are likely to be worse in the North West, Eastern Cape and Free State. In different areas of the country facing higher and unpredictable rain intensity, floods are likely to be a rising concern. These can damage housing and infrastructure, limiting access to schools and health centres.
Children faced by the different challenges might feel distress and loss of emotional well-being, particularly in the absence of child protection mechanisms to provide support. In addition, household coping and adaptation strategies will affect children indirectly in the short and long term.
Our government has been very instrumental at the national and local levels in generating strategies, policies and plans that respond to a growing awareness of the impact of climate change.
We recognise, however, that children remain invisible because the majority of South Africa’s climate change policies and programmes do not yet adequately recognise children’s vulnerabilities, specific needs and the role children can play as agents of change at the grassroots level.
Spaces are beginning to develop for children’s active participation in issues related to climate change and disaster risk reduction, although these are still limited in scope and scale. Given the dynamic context within which South Africa’s climate change policy is developing, there is great opportunity to further understand the impact of climate change and deliver real, positive benefits to vulnerable groups, particularly children.
At the national level, institutional changes are needed. Children must be recognised formally as a unique social group and be formally represented in the climate change policy development process and in processes to advance South Africa’s commitment to Disaster Risk Reduction.
Local and provincial government should be supported to understand their roles and responsibilities to children, and how these can be best fulfilled so as to maximise the adaptive capacity of children and their families through appropriately developed IDPs and other local programmes.
We have a responsibility as government and adults to ensure that issues of climate change are communicated effectively to children. Though aspects of climate change already cut across the curriculum, more is still needed to ensure successful communication and take-up among children. Many opportunities exist that allow children and youth to take advantage of a potential future green economy.
As asserted earlier, climate change policies generally do not yet consider children’s specific vulnerabilities, needs and the role children can play as agents of change at the grassroots level. There is an important window of opportunity to ‘correct’ this situation. The Department of Environmental Affairs has started coordinating a process through which the different sectors identified in the White Paper are developing sector plans. These will be consolidated into a National Adaptation Plan to form the implementation basis for the overarching policy.
I urge South Africans to engage with this process to ensure South Africa’s sectoral and national adaptation plans in the making are not ‘child-blind’. These plans should recognise the positive role children can play in relation to climate change, from sharing knowledge at the household level about how to adapt more effectively to climate change, to informing local level planners of how to reduce the risks they face in relation to the increased likelihood of disasters. Likewise, the Minister could co-ordinate/facilitate the children’s sector inputs into this process of developing adaptation plans.
We must intensify communication and awareness among children about climate change. The level of awareness about climate change is relatively low amongst our children and youth. Studies show that the basic principles of climate change are not well understood by many children and, indeed, by the adult population in South Africa in general. For example, a national survey conducted by the Human Sciences Research Council in 2007 found that 22 percent of the youth (aged 16-24 years) had never heard about climate change or global warming before. Twenty-three percent had heard about it but knew nothing or hardly anything about climate change.
There is a need for more effective and integrated education and public outreach programmes. Extensive and successful awareness and communication programmes that are targeted specifically at children are required to enhance child participation in decision-making.
To this effect, as a department, we intend embarking on an annual campaign for children on climate change and environmental awareness similar to initiatives such as the 16 Days of Activism or the Child Protection Week. Such a campaign could be coupled to tree planting activities on school grounds and in communities.
As we grapple with issues of climate change and global warning, we always spare a thought for our children – future leaders and citizens who will have to live with the consequences of the decisions we take or fail to take at COP17.
I thank you.
