The White Paper on the National Climate Change Response presents the South African government’s vision for an effective climate change response and the long-term just transition to a climate-resilient lower-carbon economy and society. Climate change refers to an ongoing trend of change in the earth’s general weather conditions because of a rise in the temperature of the earth’s surface. This is going to impact on food availability, water, homes and habitats and consequently on people’s health, safety and well-being.

Children, especially infants and young children are at a high risk of harm from climate change. They are vulnerable to higher risks of water and air-borne diseases, physical injury in the event of climatic events, neglect and/or abandonment in the wake of climatic events and other impacts.

The White Paper recognises that children, together with women, people with disabilities, children in child-headed households and the aged are amongst those who are most at risk of the impacts of climate change, and calls for appropriate responses by organs of state and civil society in the various adaptation plans that they are obliged to develop.

The White Paper calls on multiple sectors and stakeholders, including water, agriculture, health, human settlements and disaster management, to develop appropriate adaptation plans that will build the coping capacity of especially vulnerable communities to withstand the impacts of climate change. For example, the health sector is called on, inter alia, to integrate food security and nutrition programmes into its national strategy to build better nutritional resilience amongst vulnerable communities and develop health action plans to capacitate people to minimise the harmful effects of the expected rise in temperatures.

The White Paper requires that all climate change initiatives, policies and programmes be developed through a process of informed consultation with affected and vulnerable communities. This offers a unique opportunity for sectors such as the children’s, gender, and disability sectors to engage with relevant government departments such as health, social development, labour and education on the integration of adaptive measures into their social development, basic services and education programmes.

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Click here to view the White Paper on the National Climate Change Response.