GARDEN ROUTE NEWS - The Garden Route Environmental Forum (Gref) will be hosting its annual Climate Change and Environmental Management Indaba on Thursday 29 June at the Nelson Mandela University George Campus.
Gref is a public platform and climate change think tank for all those in the Southern Cape involved in active and ongoing conservation and environmental management efforts to meet up, interact and showcase what they are busy with and what they are planning for the future.
"A battered economy and several high-profile local and global challenges such as continued power outages and the Russian invasion of the Ukraine grip South Africa's socio-political attention and at the same time divert vital focus away from the growing impact of a changing climate and the challenges it already poses," says Cobus Meiring of Gref.
But despite these challenges, there are positive signs of sincere efforts to plan ahead.
"Gref wishes to keep a clear view on climate change and the impact it has already had on the Southern Cape over the past decade. There were the unimaginable wild fire disasters in June 2017 and 2018, persistent drought, and a slow but measurable sea level rise resulting in coastal degradation.
"Furthermore, as rainfall patterns change, the episodic rain storms are expected to result in flash floods destroying millions of rands' worth of often irreplaceable infrastructure."
According to Meiring, the present and predicted impact of climate change is well known and solutions to mitigate this are well-chartered.
However, more often than not, targets are difficult to achieve as government spending required to act proactively is subdued due to a shrinking local economy and a myriad of urgent socio-economic issues to address, including the needs of impoverished jobless communities, unsustainable rates of urbanisation and the deterioration of South Africa's vital infrastructure including power, water, roads and railways.
South Africa is also falling behind the global curve in modernisation and technology.
Progress
However, positive progress is being made as South Africa and its citizenry show a clear understanding of the challenges.
"The private sector and private landowners are investing on an unprecedented scale in ensuring their own future survival in terms of green and sustainable energy options and by putting water security measures in place," says Meiring.
"People are using fresh water harvesting and water evaporation prevention, and are reducing the presence of invasive alien plants on their land. Furthermore, significant foreign investment packages - such as western funding to assist the country towards a just energy transition, are major positive strides towards a more sustainable future."
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