ACTION 24 – Active Citizens for Responsive Legislatures is urging South African citizens to participate in shaping South Africa’s response to the critical and all-encompassing threat of climate change.
“Climate change is a challenge that concerns us all, and it is our responsibility to engage on it and demand ambitious and progressive legislation,” said Noelle Garcin, Project Manager of Action 24.
She said the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) published the draft National Climate Change Bill last month, and there are several avenues for much-needed public participation in this important legislative process in the coming weeks.
The draft Bill is open for public comment until 8 August and there are ‘public stakeholders engagement workshops’ being hosted by the DEA across South Africa.
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“We welcome this draft of the long awaited Climate Change Bill, and some of its features – especially the overarching ambition of a “just transition to a climate-resilient and low-carbon economy and society”, and the effort to mainstream action from all spheres and sectors of government. It sends a clear signal that climate change is a cross-sectoral, holistic challenge that all sectors and sections of society need to help respond to. This is needed to give more muscle to the Department of Environmental Affairs. We urge South African citizens to seize this opportunity and participate in shaping South Africa’s response to the critical and all-encompassing threat of climate change,” she said.
Access to the draft bill, a direct comment form and consultation schedule is available on Action 24’s web page: https://bit.ly/2M7sTXo.
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