Patricia de Lille
CLIMATE change is one of the most significant challenges facing our planet.
In December, I participated in a number of events in Paris at COP21 specifically dealing with the role that cities can play in pushing a more ambitious agenda on climate change than that which national governments have committed to.
I have come away from those deliberations more convinced than ever that cities have a pivotal role to play in both mitigating climate change and adapting to its worst impacts. The engagements that I took part in were very different to the international negotiating process, in that we weren’t arguing over commas and brackets but were actually discussing tangible projects that had been implemented or conceived of in cities around the world.
One of the overriding messages of all these engagement was in fact one from the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, who implored cities to steal ideas from each other.
He was encouraging a partnership with cities around the world where the best ideas can be shared and implemented where appropriate. One of the ideas I got from the Mayor of Stockholm, where they are utilising sewage to generate biogas to run their bus fleet. We are comprehensively looking at ways in which we can use all of our waste streams in the city far more effectively as a resource particularly for energy generation.
We have already initiated pilot projects in this regard.
I was especially grateful that Hastings Chikoko, from the C40, was part of the Climate Coalition meeting because this is precisely the role that the C40 plays in ensuring that leading cities around the world can be spurred to greater action and inspire new sustainable ways of doing things.
The C40 is a valuable network of the world’s finest and pioneering cities and there is much to learn from one another. It was so good sharing a platform with other mayors at COP21, where the language we spoke was about doing rather than just talking. While we have come away from Paris with the sense that the world is finally taking climate change seriously, what still remains is a major emissions gap in terms of the national commitments that countries have committed to.
This emissions gap will have to be bridged by cities across the world, taking actions that will put their urban populations on a far more sustainable trajectory.
The message that I took to Paris is that we have already started this journey, but that our approach to climate change is to give specific priority to those projects that deliver co-benefits.
It is important that Cape Town leads the way in delivering projects that not only mitigate against climate change and adapt to it, but also simultaneously reduces poverty and creates much needed jobs. This is already evident in our ceilings retrofitting project, where the City is retrofitting state-subsidised homes that were built between 1994 and 2005, which were constructed without insulated ceilings and weather-proofing as this was not included in the RDP subsidy provided by the national government at the time.
With City funding and capital raised from the Green Fund, our large-scale retrofitting programme will be rolled out to all 40 000 units at a cost of R400 million. This large-scale retrofit project has health, social and environmental benefits. The first phase of retrofitting 8 000 homes is under way and will create around 800 job opportunities through the Expanded Public Works Programme. I am extremely proud of this project because it is a prime co-benefit example which also supports our climate change actions to improve energy efficiency through a reduction in carbon emissions and electricity consumption. For the 8 000 units which will be retrofitted with insulated ceilings, there will be a reduction of approximately 5 600 tons of carbon per annum. On the electricity front, we have a number of initiatives designed to enhance energy security of the city and reduce emissions. Cape Town is determined to move ahead with procuring power from renewable, energy independent power producers so that we can reach our target of sourcing between 10 to 20 percent of our energy from renewable sources by 2020.
We have initiated discussions with the national Department of Energy as cities in South Africa currently have to obtain permission if they wish to procure power from any other entity besides the state electricity utility Eskom.
A potentially huge source of untapped energy is also staring at us from the rooftops of Cape Town, which can accommodate both solar water heaters and photovoltaic (PV) systems. Households and businesses which generate renewable energy through rooftop PV panels are now able to feed excess electricity back into the City’s grid, allowing us to diversify our energy supply.
We have already seen an uptake of these solutions in Cape Town, but we are currently considering ways in which it can be made easier and cheaper for households and businesses to implement these solutions on a wider scale. It projected that the greatest growth in emissions will come from our transport sector over the next 25 years and tackling this will require, among other things, changes in our urban form, coupled with major interventions to decrease car occupancy, more efficient vehicles and increasing public transport usage.
The City recently issued a call for tenders for the procurement of electric buses for the MyCiTi service as we extend the footprint of the MyCiTi service across the city. We also have a responsibility to lower our carbon emissions and the impact of pollution on the urban environment. If all goes according to plan, Cape Town will be the first municipality in the country to benefit from the latest alternative fuel technology and we will be one of the first cities in Africa to use electric buses for public transport.
We have also just appointed a contractor to start the roll-out of wi-fi provision on MyCiTi buses so that we can lure more people on to public transport and out of their private cars. This is another step towards reducing local greenhouse gas emissions and enhancing resilience to climate change.
It also supports the City’s commitment to the Paris Pledge for Action at COP21 and as a member of the C40 Cities to take progressive action and lead the way in reducing energy consumption and emissions.
Our successful Water Conservation and Water Demand Management Programme (WCWDM) has been an instrumental adaptation measure and was announced as the winner in the Adaptation Implementation Category in the 2015 C40 Cities Awards in Paris. This is another example of co-benefits as up to 1 000 Expanded Public Works workers were employed to conduct ongoing door-to-door awareness campaigns to promote water conservation practices.
Through effective resource management and a shared responsibility with residents over a 15-year period, the WCWDM programme has resulted in a reduction in demand or water savings of more than 30 percent. It has also resulted in massive carbon emission savings due to the City’s ability to avoid infrastructure expansion which would have been required if water consumption had not been reduced.
We are determined to continue leading the way and being more progressive with our action and targets to address climate change.
If we are going to be more ambitious, the City will not be able to do it alone.
This will require partnerships with citizens, businesses and various stakeholders if we are going to tackle climate change effectively, protect our planet while improving the lives of our residents.
l De Lille is the Executive Mayor of Cape Town