Abstract:
The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 enshrines the right
of all citizens to an environment that is not detrimental to their health and
well-being. Furthermore, the Constitution places an obligation on the South
African government to protect this right through reasonable legislative and
other measures. Climate change threatens the environmental right which
everyone is entitled to and South Africa has been experiencing the effects
caused by changes in the climatic conditions. Therefore, one of the actions
adopted by South Africa, to protect the environment as stipulated in Section
24(b) of the Constitution, was the National Climate Change Response
White Paper, 2011 (NCCR-WP). The Department of Environment, Forestry
and Fisheries (DEFF), formerly known as the Department of Environmental
Affairs (DEA) is the facilitating department whose role is to ensure the successful
implementation of the NCCR-WP. A qualitative research approach in
terms of a document analysis was used to acquire rich and detailed information
for the research.
The article examines the state of climate change in South Africa, the role
of the NCCR-WP as one of South Africa’s climate change responses including
the two primary objectives of the NCCR-WP, namely: climate change
mitigation and climate change adaptation and the mitigation strategies outlined
in the NCCR-WP. It discusses the DEFF’s implementation of the NCCRWP
as well as the factors that negatively influence the implementation of the NCCR-WP. The article also provides recommendations that may improve
the overall implementation of the NCCR-WP
Description:
This article is based on an unpublished Master’s dissertation by Martha Madondo under
the supervision of Dr Hunadi Mapula Nkwana completed at the University of Pretoria.
The dissertation is titled: Analysing the Department of Environmental Affairs, Fisheries and
Forestry’s implementation of the National Climate Change White Paper, 2011. (http://hdl.handle.net/2263/75385)
