This was announced by Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism Marthinus van Schalkwyk in his opening speech at the Communicating Climate Change and Global Warming conference at the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens in Cape Town in July. “The world faces a global climate emergency,” he said the same weekin a media statement during the presentation of South Africa’s Long- Term Mitigation Scenario (LTMS) process at a cabinet lekgotla in July. “It is now clear that only action by both developed and developing countries can prevent the climate crisis from deepening.”

The lekgotla saw the presentation of a climate change policy which has been more than two years in the making and has drawn input from government, the business sector, the public and industry.