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Durban, South Africa, December 8, 2011 - As the COP 17 is held in the City of Durban (eThekwini Municipality), the Government of South Africa and Global Environment Facility (GEF) are taking the opportunity to demonstrate South Africa's strong commitment to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
Partnering with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), GEF is funding the project “Greening the COP17” to demonstrate South Africa's commitment towards GHG emission by promoting clean energy sources and by supporting targeted climate change awareness activities by decision-makers and the general public.
Background
In line with global efforts to combat climate change and promote green economy, the Government of South Africa through its Department of Environment (DEA) has developed comprehensive National Greening Framework and Guidelines in 2010, which aim at assisting host cities to mitigate environmental, social, and economic impacts of organizing international / global events.
Based on encouraging results from the Greening of the FIFA World Cup in 2010 (a project funded by the GEF and implemented by the United Nations Environment Program), the South African Government and GEF are partnering to promote and scale up some of the activities during COP17. The 2011 National Greening programme forms an integral part of South Africa's response to the challenges of global climate change and its pursuit of a more sustainable growth and development agenda. Private sector partners are also making strong contributions to greening of the COP17.
Project activities
The Greening the COP17 project features the following four components:
- Communications and Awareness Raising
- Innovative Technology Competition for Small and Medium Enterprises
- Low Carbon Public Transportation: eThekwini Municipality
- Solar Water Heater Emission Offset to Support Health Clinics
1. Getting the word out: The Purpose of the first component is to increase awareness among COP 17 participants, Durban inhabitants and other stakeholders of opportunities for minimizing the ecological footprint of the COP 17 event; activities and achievements of the South Africa - GEF partnership; best practices of South Africa's National Greening Programme; global and local environmental benefits of ongoing activities in eThekwini such as energy efficient lighting and appliances, low carbon urban transport system, resource efficiency including clean water and increased use of renewable energy.
A green passport will be designed and distributed to COP participants and Durban inhabitants during the COP meetings by environmental volunteers. Information on the National Greening program of South Africa and the South Africa-GEF partnership will be distributed at various COP venues and at the South Africa Expo as well as shown on national television. Additionally, dozens of environmental volunteers will be present on the streets around Durban ready to inform about Greening initiatives and answer questions from COP participants and Durban citizens.
2. The “Clean Tech” angle for businesses: The second component focuses on identification of “Clean Tech” entrepreneurs as well as business support to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) through a clean technology competition. The National Cleaner Production Centre South Africa (NCPC-SA) and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) of South Africa with support of other relevant national partners, will organize and conduct a clean energy technology innovation competition for SMEs. The “South Africa Cleantech Competition” will raise awareness on the potential for environmentally sound technologies (ESTs) in order to change the mindset around innovative clean technology in SA, whilst enhancing opportunities for entrepreneurs and small businesses. The Clean Tech Open, the US based clean energy competition initiative, is providing critical experts and systems to help launch the competition. Many private sector partners, national and international companies are supporting the project by offering free of charge incubation training, legal services and mentoring services to the finalists. Such support is expected to enhance the potential for EST innovation and market penetration of such ESTs by SMEs.
The competition focuses on three categories of Energy Efficiency, Renewable Energy, and Green Buildings. Two tracks of innovations have been set as Break-Through Technologies and Innovative Technology for Adaptation. After selecting a category, entrants can select the track they wish to contest in and comply with the rules pertaining to that particular category and track. Forty semi-finalists - twenty for each of the two tracks, will receive training and mentoring by industry leaders, as well as participate in networking events. Five finalists selected for each of the two tracks will have the opportunity to showcase their ideas at COP 17, and participate in a gala event to select the winner in each track on December 8th in Durban. All finalists will be awarded a package of grants and free business support services provided by private sector partners located in South Africa and overseas.
The support for innovative SMEs creates tangible incentives for aspiring entrepreneurs in all fields to contribute to sustainable development. The South Africa Cleantech Competition is expected to become a legacy project of COP17. The competition will be launched at the gala event and may well become an annual event in South Africa with the support of the national counterparts.
The GEF is working closely with the Clean Economy Network (CEN) to develop a webinar on the GEF-South Africa partnership on the efforts to promote clean tech entrepreneurship and innovation in South Africa. The webinar will also provide a unique opportunity for the GEF and its partners to request CEN members to join the project as volunteer mentors. CEN has become the prime networking organization for those interested in clean tech and clean energy. Only slightly more than two years old, the organization has 12,600 individual members and 66 national corporate members. The associated LinkedIn group has more than 32,000 members.
3. Biking your way to the conference: For the third component, the Low Carbon Public Transport component will provide, in collaboration with eThekwini Municipality, bicycles to COP 17 delegates and personnel. The 300 bicycles provided by the GEF grant will be used on the upgraded bike paths eThekwini, and can be used to move people around the COP venue area as well as between the COP area and the inner city. Recommended bike paths that Durban prepared for the FIFA World Cup 2010 have since been expanded and upgraded for COP17. Information on environmental, health and social impact of cycling and transport emissions are displayed at the bicycle pick-up stations.
After the COP17, some of the bicycles will be distributed to local schools and communities in line with selection criteria applied by the Durban municipality. Others will remain in Durban to continue supporting the Durban city initiative of greening inner city transport in the future by promoting public-private partnership to commercially promote the bicycle rental business to tourists and local inhabitants. The project will also explore long-term prospects for the manufacture, distribution and servicing of bicycles and other low carbon alternative transport systems in resort areas.
4. Letting the sun boil water in health clinics
Building on already ongoing efforts to promote the use of Solar Water Heaters (SWHs) in the residential sector: the fourth component promotes the installation of SWHs for health clinics in Durban, Pietermaritzburg and the Ilembe District in the province of KwaZulu-Natal. SWHs will be installed on selected rural health clinics. COP participants will be informed about the impacts of these installations and asked to contribute on a voluntary basis to the scale up of this type of project in order to further offset COP participation related emissions and encourage the installations of renewable energy in South Africa. The City of Durban, together with the COP17 organisation committee, has a bundle of registered Carbon Development Mechanism (CDM) projects which generated carbon credits that are also offered to COP delegates for official offsetting of COP related emissions. The social infrastructure SWH initiative of this component is not an officially registered carbon project but should be seen as a social responsibility project that delegates could support on a voluntary basis in order to further increase the greening of their COP footprints.