City of Joburg commits to pursuing sustainable living with launch of Climate Action Plan

Johannesburg – The City of Joburg has reaffirmed its commitment to support the well-being and livelihood of all its citizens by by launching its Climate Action Plan (CAP) to achieve sustainable and equitable recovery.

Launched by Joburg mayor Geoffrey Makhubo and the City’s MMC for Environment and Infrastructure Services, Mpho Moerane, in Roodepoort, on Thursday, the CAP will enable Joburg to achieve carbon neutrality, and develop reliable resilience against the devastating impacts of climate change, for the benefit of all its residents.

“The City will work towards these overarching goals step by step, through targets set with different deadlines, 2025; 2030; 2040 and 2050.

Makhubo was also accompanied by the Mayor of eThekwini, Mxolisi Kaunda and C40 Cities Africa Regional Director, Mr Hastings Chikoko, while other C40 Cities mayors joined the launch online, including the Mayor of Accra in Ghana, and the Vice Chair of C40, Mayor Sowah and the current C40 Chair Mayor of Los Angeles, Mayor Garcetti, who also sent their messages of support.

The City said it was the first in South Africa to join C40 and has over the years demonstrated remarkable leadership in climate action.

This, it said, includes hosting the 2014 C40 Mayors Summit that was the first of its kind on African soil and then went to win ‘Finance & Economic Development’ award at the C40 Cities Awards of 2015 for its pioneering Green Bonds initiative.

“The Covid-19 crisis assisted in highlighting the potential severity of another global crisis, the climate breakdown: those hardest hit by the pandemic are largely the same people also facing the greatest threat from climate change,” it said.

The City of Joburg said it intends to fulfil the goals of the Paris Agreement, which commits signatories to hold the increase of global temperature to well below 2 Degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature rise to 1.5 Degrees Celsius.

As a member of the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, the City of Joburg’s CAP is also partly guided by the Deadline 2020 report that was published by C40, in 2016, as a practical response and demonstration by cities to partial fulfillment of the Paris Agreement.

Moerane said, “To achieve the carbon neutrality and resilience objectives, the CAP presents a short-term target to implement deadline 2030 target, a medium-term target to be achieved by 2040, as per the City’s GDS 2040 and the long-term carbon neutrality and resilience target by 2050.”

Representing the Youth of the South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA), Celiwe Shivambu said: “The students are elated to have contributed in the drafting of the plan and in ensuring that the voice of the youth is heard.”

IOL