Page 9 - Demo

GUIDELINE ON MAINSTREAMING CLIMATE RESPONSIVENESS AND RESILIENCE INTO URBAN PLANNING 3GUIDELINE ON MAINSTREAMING CLIMATE RESPONSIVENESS AND RESILIENCE INTO URBAN PLANNING 31. Institutional and policy frameworkCR&R exists within a complex policy environment. There are various scales at which climate change response relates to policy, as well as across sectors. This institutional and policy framework is broadly illustrated in Figure 2. South Africa has positively responded to the challenge of climate change as the country is a signatory of numerous global climate change response commitments. Cities in particular, play an important role as they are at the centre of converging global frameworks, such as the Paris Agreement, the Sustainable Development Goals, the Sendai Framework on Disaster Risk Reduction, and the New Urban Agenda, and it is through the multiplier effect of cross-sector and multilevel action that ambitious climate goals can be achieved.To mainstream CR&R, all government sectors and departments must ensure that all policies, strategies, legislation, regulations, and plans are aligned with the Climate Change Act, No. 22 of 2024. The Bill provides for a coordinated and integrated response to climate change across the different spheres of government, for the effective management of climate change impacts through adaptation, as well as through contributing to global mitigation efforts. The National Climate Change Adaptation Strategy (NCCAS) provides a common vision for climate change adaptation and resilience based on the 2011 White Paper on National Climate Change Response Policy (NCCRP) and serves as the country%u2019s National Adaptation Plan in fulfilment of international obligations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The NCCAS puts forth nine strategic interventions, one of which is to facilitate the mainstreaming of adaptation responses into sectoral planning and implementation, and particularly into municipal development and infrastructure planning. The NCCAS recognises the role of local government in responding and adapting to climate change, as well as a general need for guidance and capacity building to be able to fulfil this role.Climate change cannot be decoupled from development concerns and goals, and national level policies, plans and legislation acknowledge this. The national strategic and integrated policies and strategies that outline the country%u2019s vision and development priorities include the National Development Plan (NDP), the Framework for a Just Transition (PCC, 2022), the Medium-Term Strategic Framework (MTSF), the Integrated Urban Development Framework, and the National Spatial Development Framework (NSDF) that sets out strategic spatial development priorities. They, and others, document the transformative change required to become a climate-resilient country.Section 7. (1) of the Climate Change Act, No. 22 of 2024 requires that all organs of state affected by climate and climate change align their policies, programmes, and decisions to ensure that the risks of climate change impacts and associated vulnerabilities are considered. Local government is a key player in climate change response as a facilitator and implementer to achieve effective climate action. The Local Government Municipal Systems Act of 2000, and the Spatial Planning and Land Use Management Act of 2013 require the municipal spheres of government to develop and implement integrated %u2018place-based%u2019 spatially focused plans to coordinate planning and investment through Municipal Spatial Development Frameworks (SDF) and Municipal Integrated Development Plans (IDP). Despite the important role of local