​The City of Johannesburg’s Memorandum of Understanding with C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group is a commitment to develop a Climate Action Plan (CAP) aligned to the ambition of the Paris Agreement by 2020.

Image by C40.org.za

Last month, the city stakeholders gathered at the Johannesburg Information and Knowledge Exchange (JIKE) to reimagine a low-carbon climate resilient Johannesburg as part of the Climate Action Planning process.

MMC of Environment and Infrastructure Services, Cllr Nico de Jager opened the workshop reflecting on the lessons he learnt from the Global Climate Action Summit. “We need to find the solutions, we can do it, we must do it”. He sounded a call to action, encouraging workshop participants to bring solutions forward: “Tell me what we can do; not what we can’t.”

The workshop revealed that the commercial sector took the lion’s share of CO2 emissions (36%), vehicles with 34%, residences with 25% and waste water management services accounting for 5%.

Mitigation scenarios on climate change were deliberated through considering the level of ambition that the City is likely to have achieved by 2050 relating to a range of cross-sectoral actions including renewable energy, public transport, urban planning, waste, water supply and wastewater.

The process of implementation was also deliberated at the workshop with the aim of achieving transformational action.

These included policy interventions, regulatory and compliance mechanisms, service delivery and education and awareness initiatives. The importance of forging partnerships with research institutions, communities, businesses and non-governmental organisations in order was highlighted.

The engagement was one of more bilateral workshops that would be held to ensure that the development and delivery of the plan receives support and commitment from all City departments and entities.