At the G7 Summit last week, President Cyril Ramaphosa deliberated on the negative impacts of the changing climate.
The president discussed issues facing developing nations, especially in Africa, such as the severe droughts sweeping through much of Southern and Eastern and deadly floods as well as the recent deadly floods, which claimed the lives of over 400 people in KwaZulu-Natal.
Ramaphosa appreciated that the G7 nations, consisting of the United States, Germany, Canada, Italy, France, Japan, and the United Kingdom, recognised the fact that developing countries were not solely responsible for carbon emissions and that developed countries also have an important role to play in assisting developing countries to reduce their emissions outputs.
At the summit, countries pledged their solidarity in assisting developing nations in traversing toward sustainable economic development within a renewable energy future.
The president was also pleased that developed nations are aware that they need to provide easier access to climate funding, which will allow developing nations, especially in Africa, to develop sustainable climate mitigation strategies.
According to a press release, Ramaphosa said that “G7 countries recognise that, regarding the conference of the parties in Paris, they did not live up to their commitments to provide funding for developing economies.” Funding is meant to assist developing countries in mitigating climate change.
Ramaphosa reiterated his strong belief that the African continent can become self-reliant and that talks are ongoing regarding the R136.35 billion climate funding deal made at COP26.
The German President, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, made available an additional R5 billion, which would go toward funding South Africa’s transition from coal to renewables.
The Guardian reported that current climate ambitions include accelerating a domestic unabated coal power phase-out and the establishment of sustainable renewable energy infrastructure such as wind, solar, and hydroelectric power generation.
Speaking at the annual Garden Route Environmental Management and Climate Change Indaba hosted by the Garden Route District Municipality on June 23, Minister of Environmental Affairs, Barbara Creecy, said that “long-term adaptation scenarios and assessment reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change suggest that by 2100, temperature warming is projected to reach an average increase of 3°C to 4°C along the coast and 6 °C to 7 °C in the interior.”
"With such temperature increases, life as we know it will change completely, the western part of the country will be much drier, and increased evaporation will ensure an overall decrease in water availability and the eastern part of the country will experience increased rainfall with increased storms and other severe weather events, with coastal communities being at risk from storm surges and sea-level rise," the minister said.
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