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A summit on climate
change is scheduled for Johannesburg to mark World Environment Day, and the
theme this year focuses on working towards a low carbon economy.
Upgrading transport routes as part of the Bus Rapid Transit system
IT'S time to kick another bad human habit.
This year's message for World Environment Day, celebrated annually on 5 June, urges
people to cut down on activities that increase the amount of carbon dioxide (CO²) in the atmosphere.
The theme is CO²: Kick the habit! Towards a
low carbon economy, and it will be observed the world over.
Johannesburg kicks off its celebrations
with a climate change summit at Nasrec Expo Centre on 2 and 3 June.
The summit will target mostly municipalities,
"to create awareness around the City's climate change mitigation and adaptation
programmes", says Linda Phalatse, Joburg's deputy director for climate change
and cleaner production.
The City is leading the way in South Africa
when it comes to measures to curb climate change. It has launched a wide range
of environmental programmes since hosting the World Summit on Sustainable
Development in 2002.
Success stories include greening the city,
especially those areas that have been previously disadvantaged; the wetlands
rehabilitation programme, specifically the Vorna Valley and Mapetla wetlands; and
retro-fitting council-owned buildings with energy efficient lighting.
But the really big one is the Rea Vaya Bus
Rapid Transit system, of which the first phase was started in 2007. A study
done to establish the sustainability of this project concluded that, "Rea Vaya
will reduce 311 586 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions from the current ‘do
nothing' scenario".
Phalatse says that although some
municipalities are already implementing measures to deal with climate change, Johannesburg
hopes that the summit will lead to a formal pledge from local government to
stem the tide of global warming. "We are trying to create awareness."
World expertise
Some 600 delegates from around the world
are expected to attend the two-day summit.
Presenters from cities with excellent best practice records in the
environmental field, such as London and Seoul, will exchange information on
practical actions to combat climate change.
A key environmental achievement is the completion of an eco-design as part of the Klipriver-Klipspruit rehabilitation and greening programme
Ira Magaziner, the chairman of the Clinton
Climate Initiative, will give an overview of the Large Cities Climate
Leadership Group (also known as the C40), of which Johannesburg is a member. Topics
discussed will include the relationship between climate change and transport,
policy, energy use in buildings, waste, natural resources and carbon financing.
Johannesburg is progressively carving a
name for itself in the international environmental arena. Earlier in the year
it was awarded second place in the Mastercard Worldwide Centres of Commerce
Index, indicating its status as a top commercial centre able to co-exist
harmoniously with the environment. It rubs shoulders with the likes of
Melbourne, coming first, and Singapore, in third position, as cities least
vulnerable to urbanisation and the environment.
For its executive mayor, Amos Masondo, one
of the key environmental achievements of the past year was the completion of an
eco-design as part of the Klipriver-Klipspruit rehabilitation and greening
programme. Masondo is particularly concerned with the enormous threat climate
change poses to South Africans and Africa as a whole, and has made environmental
health a mayoral priority.
The African continent is said to be the
most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. "The mayor is passionate
about climate change issues," says Phalatse.
Masondo is the immediate past president of
the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives, an international
association of more than 630 cities, towns, countries, national and regional
local government organisations committed to locally designed initiatives for
sustainable development. He was also a panellist at the C40 Large Cities Summit
on climate change in New York in May 2007.
The host of World Environment Day 2008 is
New Zealand, with the main international celebrations scheduled for Wellington.
New Zealand was one of the first countries to pledge to achieve carbon neutrality.
That means the country aims to balance the amount of carbon released with the
amount sequestered or offset.
In low carbon economies, a minimal amount
of greenhouse gases, particularly carbon dioxide, is emitted. China, the United
States, Russia and India are the big world polluters. South Africa is in the
top 20 of the world's worst carbon dioxide polluters.
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