Opportunities for municipal climate adaptation:

aligning local adaptation plans with provincial and

national policy in South Africa

Gina Ziervogel, Penny Price and Emma Archer

gina@csag.uct.ac.za Department of Environmental and Geographical Science and African Climate & Development Initiative,

University of Cape Town

Overview • Opportunities and enablers of municipal scale adaptation

governance

• Importance of co-production for building adaptive capacity

across scale

• Case study: Development of Bergrivier municipality climate

adaptation plan

Opportunities for municipal climate

change governance • Growing literature on institutional barriers to adaptation

governance

• Important to understand opportunities and enablers “factors that make it easier to plan and implement adaptation actions, that expand adaptation options, or that provide ancillary co-benefits” Klein et al. (2014: 907)

• Local government key to supporting opportunities • Provide resource/change planning (Biesbroek et al. 2013; Measham et al.

2011)

• Access to multiple stakeholders

• Connects to national and international (Pasquini et al. 2014; Bulkeley 2010)

Building adaptive capacity through co-

production

• Nature of co-production • Experts from science, policy, practice and local communities (Bulkeley

2006)

• Importance of developing contextually relevant strategies (Corburn 2009)

• Co-production as part of adaptation • Focus on process and capacity critical given slow uptake of

adaptation implementation (Kates et al. 2012; Tompkins et al 2010)

• Reflexive engagement between research and practice (Patel et al. 2015)

• Social capital is needed to draw on multiple knowledges and work collectively (Armitage et al. 2011)

Western Cape Government

Climate Change Municipal Support Programme

• Support for local & district municipalities to development & implement

climate adaptation plans

• New programme, 1st year = 4 Municipalities

• Partnerships

• Bergrivier councillors and officials

• Local community / NGO representation

• CSIR

• CSAG

• ACDI

Process: Bergrivier municipality

• Formal solicitation of interest for involvement

• Presentation to mayoral committee to achieve buy-in

• 3 in-situ workshops

• Draft adaptation plan • Initial draft by Provincial official

• Input from scientists

• Finalisation by Bergrivier officials

• Integration of climate change adaptation plan into IDP

Workshop 1 (Oct 2012)

Workshop 2 (Nov 2012) Workshop 3 (Jan 2013)

Current vulnerability Climate change

vulnerability (impacts

and prioritisation)

Developing adaptation

options

Key climatic events in Bergrivier

Key sectors and activities

High temp Flood

Erratic rainfal

l Heavy winds

Infrastructure - Roads

L M L L

Infrastructure -Structures / buildings

M L L M

Infrastructure - Low income housing

M H L M

Infrastructure - Storm water

L H H M

Service delivery - Water

M M L L

Service delivery - Electricity

M M L M

UCT ACDI Interdisciplinary process

• A diverse group of practitioners and academics

• A facilitated process of investigation into climate and development

in Bergrivier over 2 years

1: Policy opportunity - Mainstreaming climate

adaptation into development planning

National Climate Change Response Policy (2011)

Clearly outlines the need for local government to integrate climate change considerations and constraints into municipal master planning, e.g. IDP

Western Cape Climate Change Response Strategy

Climate Adaptation Work Group reports on mainstreaming adaptation into municipal planning and operations

Climate Change Municipal Support Programme reported on under Annual Performance Plan

Bergrivier Municipality

Integrated Development Plan (2013)

Climate Change Adaptation Plan integrated into IDP

Bergrivier Municipality Climate Change Adaptation Plan (2014)

Focus areas: Mainstreaming climate change governance into municipal governance; Climate resilient low cost housing; Stormwater; Conservation of natural resources (focus on clearing alien invasive vegetation); Agriculture

2: Policy opportunity – Flexibility of process

• Province’s measurable outcome:

• “Climate adaptation mainstreamed into local level municipal

planning and operations”

• Iterative feedback between the provincial and local levels

• Limited resources

Source: //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flexibility; http://www.area15.es/wp-content/uploads/bombilla-mundo.jpg

3: Capacity opportunity – Collaborative and

entrepreneurial government leaders

• Public managers critical role in ‘catalysing’ knowledge

production and providing leadership (Maiello et al. 2013;

Termeer et al. 2012)

• Collaborative leadership

• Municipal “champion”’s limited knowledge of climate change

adaptation

• Entrepreneurial leadership

• Provincial “champion” with strong social capital

4: Capacity opportunity – Diverse

group of stakeholders

PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT

MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT

SCIENTISTS LOCAL

PRACTITIONERS

Conclusion: Supporting co-production

to build adaptive capacity

• Importance of leveraging opportunities

• Cross scalar policy alignment

• Capacity

• Aligned with development priorities

• Co-production

• Supported because of social capital

• Built adaptive capacity across groups

• About a process not a destination

Gina@csag.uct.ac.za