Varsities ‘key to the fight against climate change’

19 February 2016

 

Mega cities struggling with data collection to formulate their climate change actions should start considering building relations with institutions of higher learning, especially universities, in their respective areas.

 

Most of the universities have research departments and these could help when cities struggle to obtain information from government departments for whatever reason.

This recommendation was made at the conclusion of the two-day C40 Cities workshop hosted by the City of Johannesburg at the Parktonian Hotel in Braamfontein this week. C40 Cities is a global network of mega cities committed to fighting climate change. The data collection challenge was seen as a major problem facing cities, especially in Africa, in their attempts to plan against climate change.

It was said at the workshop that in some cities on the continent it could take up to six years to obtain data on rainfall patterns. In some cases, data tended to be hogged ostensibly for "security" reasons, the workshop heard.

This has no doubt put a strain on climate change adaptation practitioners as they cannot make informed forecasts and plan accordingly. The delegates felt governments should be willing to share information with climate change adaptation practitioners.

The workshop, whose intended outcomes was to introduce new methodologies of data collection and analysis, was attended by delegates from several African cities, including Lagos, Accra, Nairobi, Windhoek, Cairo, Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town.

It also noted that cities accounted for 57% of the global population, which put them at the centre of the fight against climate change. Cities play a key role in the global economy and can play an important role as drivers of solutions to climate change.

The workshop, specifically called to discuss reporting and adaptation, put more emphasis on the importance of reporting to allow cities to transparently disclose climate data and track performance.

Other issues discussed included greenhouse gas emissions, risk and opportunities from climate change, strategies for mitigating emissions and strategies for adapting to changes in the climate.