SA 'can deal with climate change'

2005-10-20 11:13

Themba Gadebe

Johannesburg - South Africa has a good capacity to deal with climate change but this is not enough, says the Science and Technology department's acting manager, Imraan Saloojee.

Speaking to government news agency BuaNews on Wednesday at the national consultative conference on climate change, Saloojee said there was a need to inject more capacity to deal with climate change.

"We need capacity in respect of human resources - especially black women - and also in terms of model and predictions for climate change," he said. Asked if there was an increase in the number of those graduating in science, Saloojee indicated there was a slight increase especially at PHD level.

He said the conference would also look at a strategy to attract more people in the field of science to beef up capacity.

Asked how severe climate change was, he responded: "Unfortunately some of the predicted effects are going to happen," adding that "we would need to come up with adaptation and mitigation strategies".

"There are predicted changes that would affect our biodiversity and temperature patterns in 15 years time which include extinction of animals and plants," he said.

BuaNews also spoke to Richard Worthington, the co-ordinator of the South African Climate Action Network (CAN) who expressed satisfaction at the commitment shown by government to address climate change.

CAN is a worldwide network of over 365 NGOs working on climate change.

"We welcome government's commitment to translating science into the mainstream public policy but we will not say much as we are still waiting for the outcomes of the conference tomorrow (Thursday)," he said.

The conference is expected to develop outcomes on how to advance scientific methodologies and research findings relating to climate change in Africa.

It will also come up with ways of how science could be translated into policies, strategies and action plans and to chart the way forward on future commitments.

- News24