I had the honour of attending the CitiesAdapt Policy Dialogue on Urban Climate Resilience in the Context of South African Cities on Monday, July 21, 2025, with my Regional Chairperson, Kgantsho Ramakau. The event, which was held in Sandton, brought together young leaders, civil society, municipal officials, and politicians for a lively discussion on how cities might address the climate problem.
Each of the three sessions that made up the dialogue provided profound insights and useful information. I’ve outlined my main conclusions from each session below:
Session 1: Financing Urban Resilience – Pathways to Scalable Adaptation
I found this session particularly noteworthy as it brought attention to how important funding is to the advancement of climate adaption initiatives. I was highly motivated seeing young professionals from the National Treasury and World Bank.
Along with learning more about the work of GIZ and the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA), I also developed a better understanding of how financial transparency directly affects the success of climate initiatives. This dialogue made it very evident that execution is impossible without financial input.
Therefore it is very important that when looking for investors the past financial records are presented faithfully so , with honesty so that the investors can be motivated to invest in Climate Change initiatives, another reason why financial transparency is significant to this is because there is less likely monetary return on investing on initiatives like this which makes it more difficult to get investors , however with clear presentation potential investors may invest seeing the social benefits to this initiative.
Session2: Implementation and Scaling of Urban Climate Solutions
Municipalities like uMhlathuze, Mbombela, eThekwini, and Drakenstein presented case studies of their local efforts to combat climate change during this session.
The City of Mbombela’s river-cleaning initiative, which was praised by eThekwini Municipality, was the most noteworthy. A real example of sustainable development in action, this initiative promotes community uplift and employment creation in addition to environmental conservation.
I was reminded throughout the session that local governments have the ability to effect significant change and that, with the right backing and expansion, even modest projects may have a significant influence.
Session3: Policy Coherence and Multi-level Governance
The significance of coordinating climate change policy at all governmental levels was covered in this session. I valued hearing other departments’ points of view, and I took special notice of the South African Local Government Association’s (SALGA) demand for more local government participation in climate decision-making.
Collaboration across the national, provincial, and local levels of government is necessary for significant change, as this conversation made clear.
It was suggested that with collaboration and implementation, everything should start locally at the grounds of everything, especially with local municipalities, as they know the struggles and issues of their environment better it’ll make the job easier in mitigating the causes of climate change, so that the issue can be resolved bit by bit than starting big in the national levels where there’s different problems from different locals, in that way it can be complicated and hard to achieve the goal of mitigating these causes of Climate Change.
The policy of climate change should not be written at national levels but should be a consolidated policy made up of policies from different locals based on issues faced by the locals.
Final Remarks
This was an empowering as well as educational experience. I’m really grateful to Climate YES and Green Anglicans for giving me the chance to attend and take in this insightful discussion. Our mission as Green Anglicans is to support, empower, and hold the Church responsible for its stewardship of God’s creation.
As the Anglican Students Federation’s Gender, Education, and Transformation Officer, I believe it is my duty to promote environmental preservation and make sure that everyone contributes to protecting the planet for coming generations.
My dedication to climate justice has been strengthened by this experience.
By :Jessica Rankali
Gender, Education and Transformation Officer (ASF Gauteng Region)
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