The Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs, Mrs Edna Molewa today opened the Regional Outreach Meeting on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 2012 Special Report on Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation (SREX).
The event is taking place till tomorrow, 22 October 2013 at Leriba Lodge, Centurion, Gauteng. Since the release of the SREX in 2012, the IPCC has used a series of workshops to help countries, cities, and international organizations understand the opportunities of improving adaptation to extreme events and disasters.
The latest in this series of workshops takes place in Pretoria, South Africa. Nearly 100 leaders in government, business, and academics from across Southern and Eastern Africa will have the chance to learn about the report from IPCC authors and to discuss the report’s findings in the light of their own experiences.
The current workshop is being hosted by the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA), the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg and the University of Pretoria with financial support from the government of Norway.
As mentioned by the Minister during her speech, the workshop comes at an opportune time, following the recent release of the 5th Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on the Physical Science Basis for Climate Change.
This report confirms that warming of the climate system is unequivocal, as evidenced by increases in global average temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice, and rising sea levels.She added that the workshop and the IPCC 2012 SREX it was looking at were important because the Special Report on Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation emphasizes the importance of integrating expertise in climate science, disaster risk management, and adaptation.
We need to plan for the changes that are expected to occur. We need to adjust our ecological, social, and economic systems and change the way we do things. Our processes, our practices, and our structures must be properly aligned to reduce the impacts of, and vulnerability to climate change now as well as increasing the social, economic and environmental resilience to future impacts.
According to the report, Africa, which accounts for the majority of Least Developed Countries (LDCs) in the world, is highly vulnerable to climate change and variability. This continent is projected to experience increased warming, decreased rainfall, increased intensity of droughts and floods, as well as sea level rise that is expected to contribute to extreme coastal high water levels.
Some of the report’s other key findings are:
- Changes in some extreme weather and climate events are already happening and economic losses from climate extremes have also increased. Since 1970, 95% of lives lost from natural disasters have been in developing countries. Economic losses are greatest in absolute terms in developed countries.
- The strength and sophistication of coping strategies have often been key to the actual number of people and economic assets harmed.
- In a changing climate, many climate extremes are projected to increase in frequency, duration, and severity over the 21st century with important implications for achieving sustainable development.
- Understanding and addressing a wide variety of underlying ‘vulnerability’ factors such as levels of wealth and education, gender, age, and health will be crucial to reducing risks now and in the future.
- The report points to a portfolio of options for decreasing vulnerability. Portfolio components can assist in reducing the risks to people and assets under a variety of possible climate change futures and extremes.
- Options ranging from the individual and the family to the national and international levels can help manage the risks of extreme events in a changing climate, building on lessons learned from experience with disaster risk management and adaptation.
- Many risk management measures make sense no matter the magnitude and extent of climate change. These “low regrets” initiatives include systems that warn people of impending disasters; changes in land use planning; sustainable land management and ecosystem management.
- Other “low regrets” initiatives include improvements in health surveillance, water supplies, and sanitation and drainage systems; climate proofing of major infrastructure and enforcement of building codes; and better education and awareness.
According to Chris Field, Co-chair of Working Group II of the IPCC, “SREX can help build the scientific foundations for sound decisions on infrastructure, urban development, public health, and insurance, as well as for planningfrom community organizations to international disaster risk management. But success will require people working together, blending their expertise, at all levels.”
Looking at some of South Africa’s interventions, Minister Molewa stated that in South Africa, our efforts at promoting sustainable development focus on ensuring access to housing, water, sanitation, food security, energy, transport, education and public health services, as well as creating employment opportunities and nurturing our ecosystem services.
South Africa’s approach to addressing climate change, the Minister indicated, is both developmental and transformational. It includes the National Climate Change Response Policy, which has been endorsed by Cabinet as a vision and a framework for an effective climate change response, and the long-term, just transition to a climate-resilient economy and society. Work is well advanced in implementing this Response Policy.
A set of Long Term Adaptation Scenarios (LTAS) are being developed, under plausible future climate conditions and development pathways.This is a complex task which requires the projection of climate change impacts for key sectors and an evaluation of their socio-economic implications. So far this work has focussed on water, agriculture, human health, marine fisheries, and biodiversity sectors.
The Minister ended her address by emphasizing that because Southern Africa shares so many natural resources, as well as socio-economic circumstances and vulnerabilities, “it is therefore critical to learn from each other and to partner in our efforts of responding to climate variability and climate change.”
- Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation Report [PDF]
- Summary for Policy Makers [PDF]
- Fact Sheet [PDF]
- Pictures from the opening day of the meeting.
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