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President Cyril Ramaphosa has taken the step to sign various bills into law recently. One of these bills is the Climate Change Bill, which spells out the government’s move to deal with this global threat, by transitioning to a low-carbon and climate-resistant economy.
This move to sign the bill into law was welcomed with open arms, as this suggested that the government was taking climate change “seriously”.
By passing this bill, the government is responding to “climate change impacts that are increasingly experienced across many sectors including water resources; agriculture and food production; forestry and fisheries; human health; energy generation industry; human settlements and migration; disaster management; biodiversity and terrestrial ecosystems.
“These impacts will disproportionately affect poor communities and vulnerable groups and could affect SA’s ability to meet its development and economic growth goals, including job creation and poverty reduction,” the president said.
This recent enactment of the Climate Change Bill in SA will have significant implications for the country's agricultural sector. The agricultural sector in SA is the backbone of the economy, providing employment for a large portion of the workforce and generating crucial export earnings. However, the sector is also highly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change, including uncertainties in weather patterns, rainfall, drought and flooding events.
The Climate Change Bill sets out a comprehensive legal framework to address climate change mitigation and adaptation across all sectors of the economy. It requires every government agency to review and, if necessary, revise its policies and programmes to ensure that the risks and vulnerabilities associated with climate change are taken into consideration. This is a significant development, as it signifies a shift towards a more coordinated and holistic approach to climate change response in the country.
Climate change remains a pressing issue for various sectors, especially the agricultural sector, which saw farmers in Limpopo losing millions of rand due to black frost.
For the agricultural sector, the Act presents both challenges and opportunities. On the one hand, farmers will need to adapt their practices to the changing climatic conditions, which may require significant investments in new technologies, infrastructure, and extension services.
On the other hand, the Act provides a legal framework to support the development and implementation of climate-smart agriculture practices, which can help increase the sector's resilience while also contributing to climate change mitigation.
Climate-smart agriculture is a comprehensive approach that aims to address the interlinked challenges of food security, climate change adaptation, and climate change mitigation. It includes a range of practices and interventions, such as the use of drought-resistant crop varieties, efficient water management, and the integration of agroforestry systems.
The Climate Change Bill is claimed to provide a platform to scale up the adoption of these practices, which can help to ensure the long-term sustainability and profitability of the agricultural sector.
The growing enthusiasm among techno-optimists regarding climate-smart agriculture’s potential to contribute to sustainability should be scrutinised, as this hype has served as a rationale for the surge in AI technology investments. They argue that this technology can monitor, mitigate, and reduce carbon emissions, offering solutions to escalating environmental challenges.
The successful implementation of the Climate Change Bill will require a collaborative effort among the government, the private sector, farmers, and civil society.
Farmers will need access to the necessary information, resources, and technical support to adopt climate-smart practices, while policymakers will need to ensure that the regulatory environment supports and incentivises the transition to a more sustainable and resilient agricultural system.
To this end, the bill’s provisions for the development of a national climate change adaptation strategy and the establishment of a Climate Change Response Fund are crucial steps in supporting the agricultural sector's adaptation efforts.
- Motshweni and Khakhu are PhD students at the department of sociology at the University of Johannesburg.
