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Scoop
an hour ago
- Politics
- Scoop
Luxon Must End Climate Denial Speculation
The Greens welcome the open letter from world-leading climate scientists to the Prime Minister, urging his Government to abandon any plan to water down climate targets. 'Christopher Luxon must end any further speculation that his Government is on the climate denial bandwagon. After wasting a year playing around with the mythical 'no additional warming' idea, international alarm bells are ringing,' says Green Party co-leader and Climate Change spokesperson, Chlöe Swarbrick. 'The Climate Change Commission is clear that any entertainment of 'no additional warming' from agricultural gasses would mean households and businesses across the rest of the economy carrying a far higher burden. 'International experts are rightfully calling out this accounting trick. It's about fixing numbers on a page while the real world burns. 'While the Government doesn't tend to show any care for people and the planet, perhaps they would understand that pushing ahead with this agenda poses huge risks for our international exports, climate and trade agreements. 'The Greens have shown how we can reduce real-world emissions five times faster than the Government's 'plan,' while reducing the cost of living and improving our quality of life. 'New Zealanders deserve so much better than this Government's low ambitions for our country,' says Chlöe Swarbrick.
Daily Maverick
15 hours ago
- Politics
- Daily Maverick
How a city came together to rewrite its future in the age of climate change
The People's Plan for the Right to Housing in the age of Climate Change was created by the people, for the people. On 29 May, it was officially adopted by the City of eThekwini as part of its Integrated Development Plan. Complaining about government inaction is practically a national hobby for South Africans – and I get it. Taxes are paid, yet services go undelivered and infrastructure crumbles. But by law, it's the government's job, not ours, to protect the most vulnerable – to ensure safe housing, emergency relief and basic services, especially when disaster strikes. But what happens when ordinary citizens decide waiting isn't good enough? What happens when communities, academics, activists and city officials gather, in churches, libraries, and community halls (wherever they can find a free room) to build the system they wish already existed? In April 2022, catastrophic floods devastated KwaZulu-Natal, causing landslides, collapsing apartment blocks, sweeping away informal settlements and leaving about 489 people dead and more than 40,000 displaced. It is widely considered one of the deadliest storms of this generation in South Africa. A year later, the City of eThekwini's 2023 Integrated Development Plan (IDP) came out, and the 1,000-page document was widely criticised as a copy-and-paste job. It reused outdated content from previous integrated development plans (2002 and 2015) and failed to meaningfully address climate adaptation or disaster risk in human settlements. Despite a promised R1-billion flood relief fund from the National Treasury, the money had still not been accessed by the province. 'We didn't want them to fix the city back to the way it was, which was very unequal,' said Kira Erwin of the environmental justice group groundWork, and part of the Durban Coalition's leadership. 'It needed to be fixed in a way that also addressed inequality.' After the floods, groundWork, along with civil society, academics and residents, grew increasingly concerned that eThekwini wasn't adapting to climate risks. 'The question was, what do we need to do to become better prepared the next time a disaster like this comes?' said Professor Rajen Naidoo, the head of Occupational and Environmental Health at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. ' Because the disaster is going to come.' International scientists from the World Weather Attribution group found that human-induced climate change had made the type of extreme rainfall that hit KZN in April 2022 at least twice as likely, and 4-8% more intense. 'We were not seeing a substantive shift in the municipality that recognised how we were going to adapt our infrastructure and keep people safe,' said Erwin. 'It was a very difficult time,' recalled Thapelo Mohapi, general secretary of grassroots movement Abahlali baseMjondolo (meaning 'Residents of the Shacks' in isiZulu). 'The government was nowhere to be found.' Nicole Williams from Springfield said that after the floods flattened formal housing in her area and claimed three lives, residents began waking up. 'It's our constitutional right to expect decent living conditions and proper infrastructure,' she said. 'But if we don't hold them accountable, no one will.' 'We decided civil society could drive such a process … we really started to think through what it would take to keep ourselves safe,' said Erwin. And so at the end of 2023, the Durban Coalition was formed. For 18 months, people from informal settlements to suburban neighbourhoods came together with urban planners, grassroots groups, academics and officials to imagine a just, climate-resilient city built from the ground up. In community centres, boardrooms and libraries, they debated, listened, and co-drafted a bottom-up alternative to conventional planning. The result was a living document, the People's Plan for the Right to Housing in an Age of Climate Change: a 20-page blueprint for the city, built like an integrated development plan, but one that is concise, readable, (published in both English and isiZulu) and puts human rights, climate resilience and social justice at its core. Vusi Zweli, chairperson of Ubunye Bama Hostela, a community group of hostel dwellers in Durban and part of the coalition, said the People's Plan helped residents understand why they were 'always fighting a losing battle' – because key issues weren't included in the city's integrated development plan, and therefore had no budget. 'Many councillors don't understand what's inside the IDP themselves,' he said. 'So you can't expect them to explain it to people on the ground.' With the People's Plan translated into isiZulu and discussed in hostel meetings and workshops, Zweli said residents could finally understand what to expect from government planning. 'We call it the People's Plan – it may sound like we're tossing in a populist term, but I think that phrase captures the process into the final document,' said Naidoo. 'This was written by the people, for the people. It's not a politician telling us what they think is best – it's what we've lived through, and know what we need,' said Williams from Springfield. The People's Plan is built on five key pillars: Human rights-centred housing: The plan recommends that the revised housing strategy, as part of eThekwini's Integrated Development Plan and Housing Sector Plan, must be grounded in human rights principles. That means planning and service delivery should prioritise safety, health and inclusivity. Basic services — water, sanitation, waste removal — must be prioritised and maintained. Inclusive governance: The plan proposes creating a municipal climate change high-level working group, including civil society, business and academia, to coordinate resilience planning. It also calls for a formal multi-stakeholder forum for integrated human settlements. Climate resilience in human settlements: Housing must account for climate risks like heat and flooding. The plan calls for vulnerability mapping, early warning systems and updating strategies like Durban's Resilience Strategy with current research. Support for displaced and vulnerable groups: Targeted responses are required for displaced people, refugees, and residents of informal settlements. The plan recommends tenure security, access to affordable, well-located housing, and support for inner-city social rentals. It calls for inclusive, community-driven rental housing solutions. Implementation and accountability: For the plan to succeed, municipal capacity must be strengthened, which includes increasing capital and operational budgets for housing, filling critical municipal posts and fostering a culture of innovation and responsiveness. Civil society and academia should monitor progress and share knowledge. Unlike many policy documents, the People's Plan is designed with clear institutional reforms and practical steps. It proposes high-level structures, budget allocations and performance indicators tied to measurable outcomes. And it insists on partnerships for monitoring and adapting over time. 'The floods are because of climate change, but the consequences are because of poor management and poor planning,' said Naidoo, whose decades-long experience in occupational and environmental health was crucial in helping communities after the 2022 floods and in creating this document. Vulnerable groups – children, the elderly, pregnant women – bear the brunt, he explained. 'If government doesn't have the skills, then we bring in technical experts. That's the role we want to play as civil society.' For Naidoo, the plan's launch was historic: 'I think for the first time we had representation in a single room from communities across eThekwini. It may not have been like the Freedom Charter, but it followed the same consultative route.' But getting the city to take the plan seriously wasn't straightforward. Initially, things looked hopeful – officials participated in workshops throughout the plan's creation and attended the launch in November 2024, indicating it would inform the next integrated development plan. However, when the draft 2025/2026 integrated development plan came out, the coalition was disappointed. Though improved in structure, it still lacked meaningful climate action. The People's Plan was pushed to an appendix – meaning no budget, no department ownership and no power. Still, the coalition kept on working with the municipality – with Durban coalition members, including GroundWork, sending in official comments during the official public comment period calling for the proper implementation of their plan. In late May 2025, after sustained advocacy, city officials reportedly agreed to formally reference the People's Plan in the integrated development plan and to advocate for its implementation in partnership with civil society. Then, on Thursday, 29 May, while I was speaking to Erwin about the plan's significance, she interrupted excitedly: 'Julia, you're not going to believe this – I just got an email saying the 25/26 IDP was adopted by council today.' Bongumusa Zondo, the chief strategy officer for the eThekwini municipality, whose office oversees the integrated development plan processes, confirmed this, and told Daily Maveric k that, 'the People's Plan is aligned with the Municipality Resilience Strategy, Durban Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan.' While those municipal strategies exist, Erwin noted that implementation had lagged. What made the People's Plan different, she explained, was its integrated approach to housing and climate – a shift from siloed thinking. It promotes community-led disaster preparedness and envisions local systems – water, food, energy – that can function independently in crises. Zondo added that the city had included a performance indicator in its 2025/26 Service Delivery and Budget Implementation Plan, reporting on projects aimed at improving municipal resilience. He said the municipality was strengthening partnerships with civil society to improve neighbourhood-level disaster planning and response. United by similarities 'There's a long history of tension between ratepayers' associations and informal settlement organisations in South Africa, especially in Durban,' said Mohapi. Formal residents often see shack-building as a threat to property values and services, while shack dwellers build near jobs and transport. 'It's always been survival of the fittest,' Mohapi said, 'with the ratepayers feeling they are subsidising the poor when the government isn't doing enough. But in the coalition, we've come to see that we are all victims.' He described how powerful it was to engage with people 'who had never seen us as human beings… to have that audience for the first time was great'. He said it was also important to be heard by academics, 'and write what we are saying and put that in a form of research and then of course put it in a plan that is going to be handed over to government'. The coalition, he said, allowed honest exchange. 'We shared our pain and they shared their views. 'Today, we're friends. No one is undermined because they come from an affluent area. We discuss issues as equals.' Mohapi called the ratepayers' group in the coalition progressive 'because they managed to sit with us, listen to us, and they actually now realise that we are the same and we have the same issues'. Nicole Daniels, founder of Springfield Disaster Management and a former ratepayers' association member, agreed. Though she had long empathised with informal settlements, she said the coalition made shared realities clearer. 'The process opened up space for people from all walks of life to realise we're facing the same problems in eThekwini,' Daniels said. 'Whether you live in formal or informal housing, the challenges – poor infrastructure, unresponsive government – are the same.' In April 2022, mudslides killed three people in Springfield. Though the area has formal housing, it's on a floodplain. Poor maintenance and extreme weather lead to damage, sewage spills, power cuts and water outages. Daniels recalled how their councillor, who comes from an informal settlement, was shocked. 'He said, 'I had no idea people in formal housing have the same problems as us.' ' Zondo from eThekwini municipality said that, 'the People's Plan is very important because it demonstrates the bottom-up approach, organised society taking responsibility to work with their government to address local governance matters for the benefit of all. ' Mohapi, as well as the other collaborators, are happy that their document is finally in the process of being implemented into real policy. 'And I think it's very important to realise that even though we are poor, we can think for ourselves and we can come up with solutions,' said Mohapi. 'And it is only the people who are affected directly by the problem of disaster that can come up with solutions on how to get out of that problem. And the People's Plan is just about that.' DM
The Hindu
3 days ago
- Business
- The Hindu
Supriya Sahu honoured for contribution in fight against financial crimes
Supriya Sahu, Additional Chief Secretary to the Departments of Environment, Climate Change, and Forests, Government of Tamil Nadu, has been recognised for her contribution to the fight against financial crimes. At the 41st Plenary Meeting of the Eurasian Group (EAG) held in November 2024 in Indore, Sahu was one of the few individuals honoured for her exemplary leadership and service. In recognition of her work, Ms. Sahu received a commemorative certificate of merit presented by Vivek Aggarwal, former Additional Secretary and Head of the Indian Delegation to Financial Action Task Force (FATF). In a letter, dated April 30, Mr. Aggarwal expressed deep appreciation for Ms. Sahu's dedication, highlighting how her efforts had strengthened the integrity of the financial system and enhanced India's position within the international community. The event, which also marked the 20th Anniversary of the EAG, brought together global leaders, representatives from member States, and international observers committed to anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT). The recognition highlights Ms. Sahu's role in India's successful evaluation under the FATF, where the country was placed under the 'regular follow-up category,' an honour afforded only to a select few of the world's leading economies.
South China Morning Post
3 days ago
- Climate
- South China Morning Post
5 dead as India monsoon rains wreak havoc in northeast
Torrential monsoon rains in India's northeast triggered landslides and floods that swept away and killed at least five people in Assam, disaster officials said on Saturday. India's annual monsoon season from June to September offers respite from intense summer heat and is crucial for replenishing water supplies, but also brings widespread death and destruction. The deaths recorded are among the first of this season, with scores often killed over the course of the rains across India, a country of 1.4 billion people. A motorcyclist wades through a flooded street after heavy rains in Guwahati, in India's Assam state, on Saturday. Photo: AFP The monsoon is a colossal sea breeze that brings South Asia 70 per cent to 80 per cent of its annual rainfall. Rivers swollen by the lashing rain – including the mighty Brahmaputra and its tributaries – broke their banks across the region. But the intensity of rain and floods has increased in recent years, with experts saying climate change is exacerbating the problem. Assam State Disaster Management Authority officials on Saturday confirmed five deaths in the last 24 hours.
Malay Mail
3 days ago
- Climate
- Malay Mail
India monsoon floods kill five in Assam, trigger landslides and urban chaos as red alert issued
GUWAHATI (India), May 31 — Torrential monsoon rains in India's north-east triggered landslides and floods that swept away and killed at least five people in Assam, disaster officials said today. India's annual monsoon season from June to September offers respite from intense summer heat and is crucial for replenishing water supplies, but also brings widespread death and destruction. The deaths recorded are among the first of this season, with scores often killed over the course of the rains across India, a country of 1.4 billion people. The monsoon is a colossal sea breeze that brings South Asia 70-80 per cent of its annual rainfall. Rivers swollen by the lashing rain — including the mighty Brahmaputra and its tributaries — broke their banks across the region. But the intensity of rain and floods has increased in recent years, with experts saying climate change is exacerbating the problem. Assam State Disaster Management Authority officials on Saturday confirmed five deaths in the last 24 hours. A red alert warning had been issued for 12 districts of Assam after non-stop rains over the last three days led to flooding in many urban areas. The situation was particularly bad in the state capital Guwahati. City authorities have disconnected the electricity in several districts to cut the risk of electrocution. Several low-lying areas of Guwahati were flooded, with hundreds of families forced to abandon homes to seek shelter elsewhere. Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said his government had deployed rescue teams. 'We have been reviewing the impending situation for the last three days', he said in a statement, saying that supplies of rice had been dispatched as food aid. South Asia is getting hotter and in recent years has seen shifting weather patterns, but scientists are unclear on how exactly a warming planet is affecting the highly complex monsoon. On Monday, lashing rains swamped India's financial capital Mumbai, where the monsoon rains arrived some two weeks earlier than usual, the earliest for nearly a quarter century, according to weather forecasters. — AFP
