The University of Pretoria (UP) was the official host of the City of Tshwane’s Climate Action Plan (CAP) launch on Tuesday June 7. Held on UP’s Future Africa campus, and simultaneously livestreamed to an online audience, the launch outlined the city’s commitment to become net-zero carbon and climate resilient by 2050.

Randall Williams, Mayor of the City of Tshwane, said: “To achieve this goal, we have to reduce our emissions by 15% by 2030, 45% by 2040 and 100% by 2050.”

He said reducing the city’s exposure to climate change “is a life and death matter and we take this seriously”.

“We are starting to experience the real effects of climate chains ranging from severe droughts in parts of the country, to devastating floods in other parts. Our mantra has been that by developing and adopting climate action plans, we are future proofing our cities against the damaging impacts of climate change.”

He said that as one of the three metros in Gauteng, “a province plagued by energy insecurity, yet the economic heartbeat of the country, it will be vital for us to establish a mechanism to facilitate the uptake of renewable energy”.

Williams is part of a network of 97 mayors of world-leading cities known as C40, which are collaborating to deliver the action needed to confront the climate crisis.

Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London and Chair of C40 Cities, sent a message of goodwill to Williams at the Tshwane gathering: “Our transition to a low carbon and resilient future must always include the most vulnerable in our cities. It is therefore important to see that your climate action plan reflects the city's commitment to climate justice by integrating inclusivity in all its actions …. I'm proud to serve alongside leaders like you.”

Other distinguished participants and guests at the launch included Mpho Phalatse, Mayor of the City of Johannesburg and member of the C40 Steering Committee; Robert Beugré Mambé, Governor of Abidjan and Vice-Chair of the C40 Steering Committee; C40 Regional Director Hastings Chikoko; and Denmark’s Ambassador to South Africa,Tobias Elling Rehfeld.

Dr Rebecca Garland, who joined UP this year as Associate Professor at the Department of Geography, Geoinformatics & Meteorology, had contributed to Tshwane’s Climate Action Plan – in particular its climate risk and vulnerability assessment, and its heat risk analysis - while in her previous position as Principal Researcher in the Climate and Air Quality Modelling Group at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).

She spoke at the launch about how UP could assist Tshwane in implementing the plan. In the same way research had helped provide evidence to develop the plan, she said it could now help by providing a transdisciplinary approach to making it a reality.

“Climate change is one of those wicked problems where we have to think across all of the different sectors because you can have unintended benefits, but you can have unintended negative consequences as well. And those have to be on the table when you're developing your strategies and your plans,” she said.

“Academia and research have a critical role to play in implementation and innovation, whether it be through case studies, pilot studies, or testing needs,” she said.

“Research is key in assessing impacts,” she said, and detailed studies could feed into follow-up climate action plans.

The university was available to provide training, “particularly with the science policy linkages of these wicked problems” so that scientists could learn together with policymakers how to make the research useable.

Other key comments at the launch included:

• “Together we will be able to turn the tide towards a greener province of Gauteng and eventually the country of South Africa ….. You have my full support. I'm just a phone call away” -  Dr Mpho Phalatse;
• “What we have today here is a recognition that cities don't need to do it alone …. there are partnerships” - Anthea Stephens, City Support Programme, National Treasury;
• We are facing a real climate disaster. eThekwini  really frightened all of us with what we've just had with regards to flooding” -   Dorah Modise, Deputy Director-General: Gauteng Department of Agriculture and Rural Development;
• “We are living in climate change…. what we do in the next eight years is critical” - Dhesigan Naidoo, Head of Adaptation, Presidential Climate Change Secretariat;

Dr Clinton van der Merwe, Senior Lecturer in Geography Education at UP, rounded off the comments on the online chat forum with: “Thank you – great event. Proud to be at Tukkies”.

Read the Executive Summary of the Tshwane Climate Action Plan