Durban - South Africa has carried forward Cancun's recognition of local government's role in climate change by hosting a three-day meeting to develop adaptation strategies.
The Durban Local Government Convention sees a number of municipalities gathering at the City Hall to discuss the issue of adaptation to climate change.
"The Durban Local Government Convention is about developing a science-based argument for how adaptation should be undertaken, especially in the context of municipalities. It is about sharing science-based knowledge and developing an international local government adaptation policy response to climate change," said Thabo Manyoni, SALGA chairperson.
Local governments have joined the ICLEI - an international association of local governments - to discuss adaptation strategies because municipalities are bearing the brunt of erratic weather patterns due to climate change.
UNFCCC Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres attended the opening session with President Jacob Zuma and some of his national ministers.
Figueres issued a challenge to municipalities all over the world to scale up pilot projects around mitigation, adaptation and clean energy.
She said there were scarce resources available for scaling up these projects and governments must be smart about using them.
Figueres added that strategic efforts were needed to scale up projects and public-private partnerships now more than ever must be strengthened to deal with climate change.
She will visit one of the 10 projects from around the world, including the Buffelsdraai Landfill Site Community Reforestation Project. These projects must inspire everyone to play their part in climate change.
The project assists rural communities to collect seed, grow trees, plant these in degraded forest areas in the landfill buffer area, and maintain them.
Meanwhile, Richard Baloyi, Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister, said it was necessary for awareness campaigns to continue in South Africa.
He said it was vital the messages from scientists about the effects of climate change be communicated with communities.
Baloyi said all levels of government needed to work together to help people be better prepared for natural disasters.
A disaster management centre with proper contact details must be made available to South Africans, he added.
