Municipal vulnerability to climate change

Abstract

South Africa, like the rest of Africa, is considered highly vulnerable to climate change and variability as well as to global change. Climate change is and will continue to be an issue of concern in the development of the country. South Africa faces increased frequencies of extreme weather events, such as floods, hailstorms, heavy rain and winds, veld fires, snow, dry spells and drought (DEA 2013a). This vulnerability is worsened by the interaction between the multiple non-climatic stressors that occur at various spatial scales (affecting geographical areas differently) and which have the potential to worsen vulnerability to climate and global change (DEA et al. 2012). Existing climatic risks in South Africa are a result of stressors resulting from social, economic and political processes that have generated challenges associated with service delivery, access to clean water, sanitation and energy, rapid urbanisation, increased poverty, land use transformation and diseases such as TB and those related to the HIV virus.