Chairperson, ladies and gentlemen, as Minister of Environmental Affairs and Development planning it is my privilege to welcome you to this course about training regarding climate change.
Klimaatsverandering is een van daardie verskynsels waarvan ‘n mens nie kan weghardloop nie. Ons moet noodgedwonge reageer op klimaatsverandering, want al die wetenskaplike bewyse is daar dat dié fenomeen plaasvind en reeds ons lewens beïnvloed.
During my budget speech earlier this year, I mentioned that there has been an increasing realisation that most of the major threats to our natural systems are from human activities. While the interaction between humans and the environment is not new, the scale of the interaction has reached unprecedented proportions. The hot issue of climate change, for example, adds to and actively interacts with a variety of other environmental problems that have been caused by overusing our natural resources.
We can already see the impact of human activity on the home-front. South Africa has been described as a semi-desert region due to our shortage of water. We are now able to understand and appreciate why we must use this resource efficiently. If we do not conserve water now, the water crisis in the already drier parts of the Western Cape is likely to increase in the near future to the point that we may run out of water by 2015.
This places a pressing and urgent responsibility on my department to not only take mitigating actions immediately but to simultaneously open communications and dialogue to the public with regards to climate change and land usage. We need to provide transparency in such a way as to stimulate behavioural change while fostering a collective consciousness of “green living” within the provincial and national communities. Now is the time to strive towards empowering people to become active agents of sustainable development and to promote the understanding that every individual plays a vital role in changing attitudes towards environmental issues.
Voorsitter, die aarde en ekosisteme het ‘n merkwaardige vermoë om al die mens se besoedeling te verwerk en te suiwer. Ons het egter nou die punt bereik waar ons meer besoedeling veroorsaak as wat die ekosisteme kan suiwer.
One of the things we can do is to cause less pollution (so-called mitigation), especially the gasses which cause climate change and where we as humans inevitably have to adapt to climate change (so-called adaptation). In my department we have already completed several studies in relation to climate change. We started off with a status quo-report and also a value determination of the physical and socio-economical results of climate change in the Western Cape.
Thereafter we developed a complete climate change response strategy and action plan which was approved by the provincial Cabinet last year. We also completed several studies with regard to sustainable energy generation and consumption and we are currently busy with a Western Cape White Paper to finalise sustainable energy.
Maar al hierdie studies beteken nie veel as ons nie ons bevindinge deel nie en ook nie ons mense opvoed met betrekking tot klimaatsverandering nie. En, mag ek vra, voorsitter, waar is daar ‘n beter plek om te begin as by ons leerders en skole?
The department has thus decided to develop a course to train our teachers in climate change in order that they can educate our children in this regard. Obviously I’m not going into any detail now that will be up to the presenters of the course. We are very thankful for the Schools Development unit of the University of Cape Town that they have helped us to develop the source material for this course. Furthermore, we are also indebted to the provincial Department of Education for their facilities which they have made available to us. Last, but not least, we are thankful to the city of Cape Town for their cooperation to make this programme an enjoyable experience.
I would like to wish you well for the next 10 days. I hope it will be a pleasing and enriching experience and that our children and schools will benefit a lot from it. In the end we only have this one earth on which we may live.
I thank you.
This training workshop was a joint venture between:
- the Department Of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning
- the City of Cape Town
- the Department of Education
- the Schools' Development Unit at The University of Cape Town.
