Download - The Population Policy of South Africa

Introduction
Global climate change is possibly the greatest
environmental challenge facing the world this
century. Although often referred to as ‘global
warming’, global climate change is more about
serious disruptions of the entire world’s weather
and climate patterns, including impacts on
rainfall, extreme weather events and sea level rise,
rather than just moderate temperature increases.
The developing world faces greater challenges
than the developed world, both in terms of the
impacts of climate change and the capacity to
respond to it.
Climate change is a relatively new issue in South
Africa due to the prior isolation of this country
from international events. Education, training and
public awareness thus lag behind the requisite
standards1.
What is Climate Change?
Climate change is a change in the statistical
distribution of weather over periods of time that
range from decades to millions of years. It can be
a change in the average weather or a change in the
distribution of weather events around an average
(for example, greater or fewer extreme weather
events). Climate change may be limited to a
specific region, or may occur across the whole
Earth2.
Priority concerns for Climate Change in South
Africa.
A few areas of particular concern where global
climate change may affect South Africa include
the following:
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The geographic range of malaria could more
than double in the next 50 years, putting almost
8 million people at risk of whom 5 million did
not previously live in areas at risk from malaria;
Droughts and floods may increase in frequency;
Biophysical impacts will be most severe in the
western part of the country, with a projected
complete loss of the unique Succulent Karoo
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Biome, containing 5,500 endemic species, by
2050;
Changing weather conditions will see a 30%
drop in rainfall in the winter rainfall areas of the
Northern and Western Cape;
Up to 66% of species, including 97% of bird
species, in the Kruger National Park will have a
high probability of becoming extinct;
The total estuarine fish catch is estimated to
reduce by 35% by 2050, translating to a loss of
R152 million per year;
The potential loss in tourism value will be
significant, as tourism may be impacted by
climate change through loss of habitat and
biodiversity, and increases in temperature,
humidity and malaria;
An estimated sea-level rise of 1m as a result of
increasing temperatures will cause huge
damages to property;
Large damages can be expected to the
production of maize, the most important field
crop in South Africa. With the climate
becoming hotter and drier, production may
decrease by up to 20% in the next few decades;
and
Social stability may be threatened.
Many of the most severe impacts of climate change are
expected to occur in areas currently typified by low
levels of human development, which means that the
impact of poverty in these areas may be more severe
than the projections would suggest.
Implications of Climate Change
Climate change further tends to magnify and reinforce
existing inequalities in populations and development,
and gender inequality is among the most pervasive.
Gender discrimination and inequalities mean that
women are among the first to lose their homes and their
jobs after weather-related disasters. 3
back the emissions of six greenhouse gasses –
was adopted in 1997 and South Africa acceded to
the Protocol in 2002.
As women headed-households form the majority
of the poor, they suffer most when erratic weather
brings drought or floods to marginal lands or
crowded urban areas where most poor people live.
As climates change, access to basic needs and
natural resources becomes increasingly
difficult. Rural women are still largely
responsible for securing food, water and energy
for cooking and heating, but harsh
environmental realities in the form of drought,
deforestation and erratic rainfall cause women
to work harder to secure these resources.
Women, therefore, have less time to earn
income, get an education, or provide care to
families. In these conditions, girls regularly
drop out of school to help their mothers gather
fuel wood and water. Women’s domestic and
social responsibilities and their role as stewards of
natural resources position them well to develop
strategies for adapting to changing environmental
realities. Several examples from across the world
show that communities cope better with natural
disasters when women play a leadership role in
early warning systems and reconstruction.
The health status of millions of people is
projected to be affected through, for example,
increases in malnutrition; increased deaths,
diseases and injury due to extreme weather
events; increased burden of diarrhoeal diseases;
increased diseases due to higher concentrations of
ground-level ozone related to climate change; and
the altered spatial distribution of some infectious
diseases4.
However, as a developing country, South Africa
is not required to reduce its greenhouse gases.
Earlier, the ratification of the Montreal Protocol
committed South Africa to phasing out the
production of ozone–depleting substances by
2030. 5
1 South African National Climate Change Response
Strategy, September 2004.
2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_change.
3 WEDO (Women’s Environment & Development
Organisation) 2007. How a changing climate
impacts women. Available at
http://www.wedo.org/files/Roundtable%20Final%20
Report%206%20Nov.pdf
4
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC),
2007.
5
DEAT (Department of Environmental Affairs &
Tourism) 1999. State of the environment in South
Africa – an overview. Pretoria: Department of
Environmental Affairs and Tourism.
South African’s Response to Climate Change
As part of the international response to climate
change, South Africa signed the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change in
1994 and ratified it in 1997. A National
Committee on Climate Change has also been
established, and in 2004 a National Climate
Change Response Strategy for South Africa was
compiled. The Kyoto Protocol – aimed at
reducing the effects of climate change by cutting
Note: This Factsheet is adopted from the Population +10
Review Report which can be found in our Population
Website!!
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Tel: +2712 3127206/ E-mail: [email protected]
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