South Africa has taken a significant step in its climate change strategy with President Cyril Ramaphosa signing the Climate Change Bill into law.

This critical piece of legislation aims to provide effective climate change mitigation and adaptation actions, ensuring South Africa can transition to a low-carbon, climate-resilient economy and society without policy contradiction constraints.

The law sets out to enhance South Africa’s ability and capacity to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and build climate resilience while reducing the risk of job losses and promoting opportunities for new jobs in the emerging green economy, the Presidency said in a statement. “The act aims to enhance coordination between national sector departments, providing policy setting and decision-making to enable South Africa to fulfil the commitments in its nationally determined contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement.”

The NDC is a set of commitments South Africa has made under the international Paris Agreement to reduce greenhouse emissions as part of climate change mitigation.

South Africa’s mitigation measures respond to climate change impacts increasingly experienced across a number of 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 South Africa’s ability to meet its development and economic growth goals, including job creation and poverty reduction,” the Presidency said.

The law also stipulates the role provinces and municipalities will play in mitigation efforts.

“We welcome this transformative legislation, which clearly defines the functions of the Presidential Climate Commission (PCC) and outlines the roles of provinces and municipalities in our climate change mitigation efforts,” says Crispian Olver, Commissioner and Executive Director of the PCC.

Olver says legislation will foster institutional coherence and enhance climate adaptation governance at all levels of government, marking a new phase in South Africa’s climate action efforts.

One of the reasons South Africa has been unable to access global capital flows related to climate change is lack of a clear roadmap, according to Msizi Khoza, Environmental, Social and Governance Head at Absa Corporate and Investment Banking, speaking at a media roundtable event last month before the Climate Change Bill was signed into law.

“The Climate Change Bill is crucial. It is a legislative framework that could align the entire government apparatus in one direction and create a legal obligation for national, provincial and municipal levels of government to implement adaptation and mitigation strategies.”