Jozi C40 workshop hailed as a ‘big success’

22 February 2016

 

The C40 Cities workshop hosted by the City of Johannesburg wound up its business late last week with delegates describing it as a “huge success”.

 

The workshop, held at the Parktonian Hotel in Braamfontein, was attended by delegates from nine African cities, including Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), Nairobi (Kenya), Windhoek (Namibia), Accra (Ghana), Cairo (Egypt), Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban (South Africa).

C40 Cities is a global network of mega cities committed to fighting climate change and sharing best practice in climate data management. The organisation has a membership of 452 cities globally, 52 of which are in Africa. Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina in South America, was also represented in last week’s workshop in Johannesburg.

Delegates remarked that they had benefited immensely from it and could not wait to apply the methodologies they learned in their respective work environments. The delegates were trained by facilitators from C40 Cities, CDP and Bloomberg Philanthropies on how to plan, acquire, report and manage data. 
A new methodology called CRAFT (Climate Risk and Adaptation Framework and Taxonomy) and new key terms and concepts for adaptation were also unpacked.

Mzukisi ka Gwata, the City of Johannesburg’s Programme Manager: Climate Change Adaptation, said it was exciting to interact and share experiences with his counterparts from other African countries.

“It was good that everybody was on board,” he said.

He had earlier given a presentation on how the City of Johannesburg was assessing its vulnerability to climate change. He said the City was aiming to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by between 40% and 60% by 2040. Ka Gwata said to achieve this Johannesburg had already put in place several interventions, including the introduction of the Rea Vaya Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system, the use of solar geysers in homes, and of diesel and methane gas in Metrobus fleets.

Ines Lockhart, one of the delegates representing Buenos Aires, said excessive rainfalls, rising temperatures and a new mosquito plague were some of the biggest challenges facing her city. Lockhart said the lack of technical knowledge and political indecision also affected the city’s efforts to implement its climate change action plan.

"An inter-ministerial committee had been set up to streamline efforts to fight climate change," she said.

Addis Ababa’s delegation was led by Wondemagenge Hailegiorgis, Deputy Head in the Office of the Mayor. He said members of the delegation had gained a lot from the workshop “even though it was short and packed with topics”.

He said the delegation was impressed by Johannesburg’s climate change action plan and also found other cities’ experiences “empowering”.