South Africa CAPE TOWN CLIMATE CHANGE PLAN

Cape Town aligned its climate goals with the Paris Agreement and joining the C40 Deadline 2020 program in 2017. Deadline 2020 assists towns in formulating plans that translate the Paris Agreement’s goals of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius into action at the local level.

The goal of the City of Cape Town’s Climate Change Action Plan is to lay out the steps necessary to achieve this strategic goal. Building an evidence base on climate change risks, sources, and volumes of emissions, as well as exploring current and planned climate change-related projects and activities across the City, were all required for the strategy and action development. This necessitated data gathering, analysis, and substantial stakeholder participation (both formal and informal) in order to build and relate context-appropriate actions to an implementing entity. This plan, as illustrated in Figure 1, is not designed to replace the thorough planning of sector specialists, but rather to launch new and support existing ambitious climate change projects through:

1.    Data collection and evidence-based development
2.    Internal and external engagement to identify opportunities
3.    High-level climate change action planning and target setting
4.    Local government projects and programs: Detailed feasibility and affordability assessment and project development
5.    Citywide private sector investment and project development: Regulation, enabling stimulus and partnerships
6.    City and citywide resilience/emission outcomes: Financing of implementation
7.    Monitoring, evaluation, learning and reporting of plan and actions

Cape Town is a seaside city in the Western Cape province of South Africa, on the continent’s southwesterly tip. It is also the country’s legislative capital and one of Africa’s most popular tourist sites. Cape Town is South Africa’s second-most populous metropolitan municipality, with over 4 million residents, and is predicted to increase to 5,1 million by 2030. Cape Town is situated in a unique environmental setting, making it particularly vulnerable to climate change-related concerns.

Access to the full  Climate Change Action Plan is available.

For more information contact: U.S. Commercial Service; U.S. Embassy-South Africa Email: Office.Johannesburg@trade.gov;  Phone: +27 11 290 3192

Energy interests: Mlamli Mjambana at Mlamli.Mjambana@trade.gov 
Environmental interests: Felicity Nagel at Felicity.Nagel@trade.gov 
Green buildings: Jaisvir Sewpaul at Jaisvir.Sewpaul@trade.gov