Department fighting climate change perception as poor are the most vulnerable
The Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning is campaigning to change the perception that climate change is a white middle-class issue. Picture: Sisonke Mlamla
Cape Town - The Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning is campaigning to change the perception that climate change is a white middle-class issue.
Karen Shippey, chief director: environmental stability at the department, said: “When it comes to assigning budgets, as a municipality, as a provincial department etc, one of the things you do is respond to the things that people are shouting about the loudest and that tends not to be climate change.
“There is a perception among a lot of people, especially in local government or across the districts in the province, that climate change is a white middle-class issue. It is absolutely not.
"It is going to affect the poorest of the poor more than anybody else,” said Shippey.
She was speaking in the provincial legislature where the standing committee on agriculture, environmental affairs and planning was deliberating on the department’s annual report for the 2018/19 financial year.
She said the department had spent the last two decades explaining the phenomenon of climate change, but had experienced limited support and “capacity constraints”.
Pat Marran, an ANC member of the standing committee, had queried the roles and responsibilities of provincial and local governments in the Climate Change Bill that is currently being developed.
Shippey said the department needed to ensure that every municipality included the climate change factor in their plans, “because we know we are going to get very uncertain weather patterns”. She said the attitude that environmental problems would be fixed by environmentalists was part of the problem.
Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning MEC Anton Bredell told the committee: “The province is one of the most biodiverse areas in the world.
"It is also home to some of the driest areas in the world, which makes it quite vulnerable to climate change and related issues.”
The MEC said that in the recent past, the effects of climate change were obvious for all to see, with the Western Cape experiencing its worst drought since 1904.
“The increasing pressure on natural resources to meet growing demand, amid these troubling times, continues to be a difficult task for the department.”
The annual report said the considerable climate-related disasters that had hit the province in recent years, with drought and fires the most “far-reaching, economically and socially devastating”, made the transition to a low-carbon and climate-resilient province via the Western Cape Climate Change Response Strategy increasingly vital.
Cape Town - The Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning is campaigning to change the perception that climate change is a white middle-class issue.
Karen Shippey, chief director: environmental stability at the department, said: “When it comes to assigning budgets, as a municipality, as a provincial department etc, one of the things you do is respond to the things that people are shouting about the loudest and that tends not to be climate change.
“There is a perception among a lot of people, especially in local government or across the districts in the province, that climate change is a white middle-class issue. It is absolutely not.
"It is going to affect the poorest of the poor more than anybody else,” said Shippey.
She was speaking in the provincial legislature where the standing committee on agriculture, environmental affairs and planning was deliberating on the department’s annual report for the 2018/19 financial year.
She said the department had spent the last two decades explaining the phenomenon of climate change, but had experienced limited support and “capacity constraints”.
Pat Marran, an ANC member of the standing committee, had queried the roles and responsibilities of provincial and local governments in the Climate Change Bill that is currently being developed.
Shippey said the department needed to ensure that every municipality included the climate change factor in their plans, “because we know we are going to get very uncertain weather patterns”. She said the attitude that environmental problems would be fixed by environmentalists was part of the problem.
Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning MEC Anton Bredell told the committee: “The province is one of the most biodiverse areas in the world.
"It is also home to some of the driest areas in the world, which makes it quite vulnerable to climate change and related issues.”
The MEC said that in the recent past, the effects of climate change were obvious for all to see, with the Western Cape experiencing its worst drought since 1904.
“The increasing pressure on natural resources to meet growing demand, amid these troubling times, continues to be a difficult task for the department.”
The annual report said the considerable climate-related disasters that had hit the province in recent years, with drought and fires the most “far-reaching, economically and socially devastating”, made the transition to a low-carbon and climate-resilient province via the Western Cape Climate Change Response Strategy increasingly vital.
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