Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment Minister Barbara Creecy Creecy said Africa cannot delay its climate change adaptation and mitigation efforts

Creecy said the African continent faced the full impact of the climate emergency and the region cannot delay its climate change adaptation and mitigation efforts. File Picture: Oupa Mokoena/African News Agency(ANA)

Creecy said the African continent faced the full impact of the climate emergency and the region cannot delay its climate change adaptation and mitigation efforts. File Picture: Oupa Mokoena/African News Agency(ANA)

Published Nov 10, 2021

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DURBAN - South Africa is making progress on its climate goals because the country has adopted the National Adaptation Strategy, implemented an enhanced Mitigation system with robust monitoring and evaluation, developed a long-term low emissions strategy and established the Presidential Climate Commission.

Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment Barbara Creecy said this when addressing the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) COP 26 in Glasgow in the UK on Monday. She said Africa’s sustainable development efforts have been set back.

Creecy said the African continent faced the full impact of the climate emergency and the region cannot delay its climate change adaptation and mitigation efforts.

“For Africa, as a region that is particularly vulnerable to climate change, delayed climate action is not an option. We are facing the full impacts of the climate emergency, even as we struggle to overcome the devastating socio-economic impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic that has exacerbated Africa´s Special Needs and Circumstances,” Creecy said.

“Our message to the international community is clear – we need your support now more than ever before to achieve our climate objectives, in the context of a Just Transition.

“We have submitted our updated and significantly more ambitious Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) ahead of COP 26. This brings forward the peaking of our emissions by a decade and contains detailed information on adaptation and the support we require from the international community,” she said.

Meanwhile, the Premier of KwaZulu-Natal Sihle Zikalala is currently co-chair for the Africa Region at the Under2 Coalition for Climate Change which is an association of sub national states and provinces focusing on climate change led by co-chairpersons from different continents.

“KwaZulu-Natal and South Africa are already experiencing significant impacts of climate change, particularly as a result of increased temperatures and rainfall variability. Our country is said to be warming at more than twice the global average temperature increase.

“In this regard KwaZulu-Natal is participating in mitigation measures which include Carbon Budgets, Sectoral Emissions Targets (SETs) and Carbon Tax, all of which make up South Africa’s Mitigation system.” Zikalala added.

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