City ready to tackle climate change challenges

Business Brief by the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Economic Growth, Alderman James Vos 

Cape Town stands ready to face challenges brought on by climate change thanks to proactive steps the City has taken around energy supply and through the set-up of a Resilience Department, Mayoral Committee Member for Economic Growth, Alderman James Vos, told the 1.5 Degrees Africa’s Net Zero conference.

1.5 Degrees is the inaugural climate change event on the continent and brought together high-profile dignitaries, captains of industry and top experts in the field from across Africa to engage around the issue.

‘Our world is experiencing more and more extreme weather events such as the severe drought we lived through here in the South Western Cape region a few years ago which included three of the lowest rainfall years on record. Not only are the social impacts of such phenomena clear but research from the Swiss Re Institute warns that the largest impact of climate change is that it could wipe off up to 18% of GDP from the worldwide economy by 2050 if global temperatures rise by 3.2°C. So we need to get ahead of this. Here in Cape Town, we are doing just that,’ said Alderman Vos.

Alderman Vos noted that in 2019, the City implemented a Resilience Strategy, making Cape Town the third city in Africa to do so.

‘The strategy is our guide as a City government in helping people, communities, businesses and systems within the metro to survive, adapt and grow no matter what kind of chronic stresses and acute shocks they experience. We have a Resilience Department that oversees the rollout of the programmes within this strategy,’ he said.

Alderman Vos then shared what the City was doing to increase energy security in Cape Town.

‘We have several projects on the cards. These include the launching of tenders to procure 30 megawatts of renewable energy. In addition, the City plans to have the projects, mostly solar PV, constructed and connected in the next 40 to 50 months,’ he told delegates.

Alderman Vos said the City will also continue engaging with companies that are involved in energy supply, including companies producing solar panels and wind turbines.

‘This is important when one considers how vast the clean energy opportunities of Africa are – and that they are largely untapped. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), Africa is home to 60% of the world’s best solar resources, yet it hosts only 1% of the global installed solar PV capacity. There is a similar scale of potential with wind energy with research commissioned for the International Finance Corporation finding that Africa’s wind resources could supply its electricity demand 250 times over,’ said Alderman Vos.