DEA extends offer to youth

Collaboration across all sectors and generations needed for a sustainable future

Engaging the youth now is critical as they are the ones who will be left to clean up the mess. This is according to Professor Barend Erasmus, Exxaro Chair in Global Change and Sustainability and GCSRI Director who wrapped up the 2nd Southern African Adaptation Colloquium.

The GCSRI in collaboration with the African Climate and Development Initiative (ACDI) and Adaptation Network recently hosted the 2nd Southern African Adaptation Colloquium: Solution Spaces and Futures, Learning Together in a Climate Challenged World at Wits University (7-8 July 2016).The meeting was well attended with over 100 attendees from various sectors including government, the private sector, the academic community, civic society and young scholars.

Professor Heila Lotz-Sisitka, from Rhodes University opened the colloquium with a keynote address on social learning and what this may offer for climate change adaptation. Day two was opened by Dr Judy Beaumont, the Deputy Director General of the Department of Environmental Affairs, who gave a keynote address that updated attendees on the Climate Change negotiations and implications for South Africa.

One of the highlights of this event was bringing together experts from various sectors and generations to discuss and interact on adaptation. The two-day colloquium featured talks and engagement on a variety of topics including: the funding of adaptation; transformative adaptation; city adaptation; co-design and adaptation; government intervention and climate change negotiations and implications for South Africa; community based adaptation; and youth efforts.

As part of the programme, the youth panel shared their passion and efforts of what they are doing to raise awareness on climate change adaptation. The Department of Environmental Affairs extended an offer to youth to submit their research/findings to be included into an official document that is collated by the country and ultimately serves at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. “Learning from and sharing from the youth offers a great opportunity for harnessing an engaged adaptation effort for climate change,” said Professor Coleen Vogel, GCSRI.

Some other presentations also echoed the need for increased youth participation – from a strategic point of view and from an academic perspective. Professor Sheona Shackleton’s (Rhodes University) presentation was entitled: Learning about learning: How do we prepare future professionals and researchers for knowledge co-production processes? In her presentation she discussed developing capacity to support sustainable development, transformation and adaptation. She spoke about how it requires new ways of knowing, learning and doing, and the need to prepare graduates for new challenges and build their capacity to make a difference.

The themes for the colloquium included adaptation as seen through the lenses of:

Knowledge co-production and learning: interrogating different ways of producing knowledge, acknowledging challenges and benefits, in addition to exploring lessons learnt to promote knowledge co-production for effective adaptation.
Solution spaces and visioning the future: what does a climate resilient South Africa look like, and what gains are being made in the adaptation space that have potential to provide real and effective solutions to climate challenges? Exploring the solutions in a multi-level and multi-scalar environment.
Transformative adaptation: exploring differences between incremental and transformative adaptation; what does/would truly transformative adaptation look like? Engaging perspectives from the South and understanding transformative adaption in the development context.

Presentations from the Adaptation Colloquium can be found below:

Adaptation at Provincial and Local Government

Climate change adaptive governance

Climate proofing small-scale rooibos production

Co-production and climate services

EMG presentation_Stephen Law_Adaptation and Social Justice

EMG_Stephen Law_Colloquium notes to accompany presentation

Paumgarten_Adap Coll 2016

Promethium Carbon_on mine impacted land

Rural Livelihoods, Learning and Visioning under a Changing Climate_An Eastern Ca

Sheona Shackleton Adaptation Colloquium Talk

Sinegugu Zukulu Conservation South Africa