Cape Town - After its Climate Change Action Plan launched in October, the City has been hailed as an A-list city (and the only African city) managing, measuring and tackling greenhouse gas emissions while adapting to climate risks in the 2021 Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP).
“To score an A, among other actions, a city must disclose publicly and have a city-wide emissions inventory, have set an emissions reduction target, a renewable energy target for the future and have published a climate action plan,” said the CDP.
Energy and Climate Change Mayco member Beverley van Reenen said the City was proud to be one of only 95 international cities awarded top marks by the CDP.
“By reporting climate data through the CDP each year, Cape Town is transparent about its climate action, tracking progress, monitoring risks and benchmarking against other cities facing similar challenges,” Van Reenen said.
The city committed to achieving the goal of carbon neutrality and climate resilience by 2050, which was embedded in its new Climate Change Strategy that set the pathway towards this goal.
Van Reenen said the action plan aimed to encourage and enable the changes required to reduce the harmful emissions of the way people live, namely through the built environment, transport, and the way goods and services were produced and consumed by all in Cape Town.
Responding to the City’s A-list status, Project 90 by 2030 and African Climate Alliance spokesperson Gabriel Klaasen commended the City’s efforts when it came to climate change data, transparency and action in some areas but said it was almost as if the A-List rating was only applicable to certain parts of the city.
“We are on the beginning of the right path but we certainly are not putting forward plans that are inclusive and progressive enough to ensure all are capacitated in this journey,” Klaasen said.
All citizens needed to be included in the journey to carbon neutrality and climate resistance, so addressing poverty levels and inequality cannot be ignored, he said.