Local Authority Responses to Climate Change in South Africa: The Challenges of Transboundary Governance

Hayley Leck,David Simon

doi:10.3390/su10072542

Abstract

Recent progress and innovation are testament to the willingness of municipal authorities to address climate change. However, urban regions worldwide exhibit an immense diversity of conditions, capabilities and responses to the challenges of changing climatic conditions. While separated by politico-administrative borders, adjacent municipalities within such regions are connected through biophysical, politico-economic, and social systems likely to be reconfigured under changing climatic/environmental conditions. Yet, to date, politico-administrative borders have largely determined the parameters of local government climate change adaptation strategies, with insufficient attention to the role of inter-municipal collaboration, especially between neighbouring rural, peri-urban and urban municipalities, for co-ordinating such policies and interventions. Within a multi-level governance framework, this paper considers the recent evolution of climate agendas in the eThekwini (formerly Durban City Council) metropolitan municipality and the adjacent Ugu (predominantly rural) district municipality on the south coast of KwaZulu-Natal province (KZN), South Africa, focusing particularly on cross-border collaboration within the greater city region. The challenges were investigated by means of 53 in-depth, semi-structured interviews with municipal, regional and local authority association staff in November 2009, March 2012, and August 2017. Our core argument is that weak inter-municipal collaboration, particularly between urban, peri-urban and rural areas within metropolitan and functional city regions, has been a significant impediment to realizing transformative adaptation within such regions. The experiences of these two contiguous yet contrasting municipalities represent a microcosm of the dramatic discontinuities and inequalities on all variables within adjacent urban metropolitan and rural contexts in South Africa and beyond. Despite promising recent signs, the challenges of inter-municipal collaborative action are therefore formidable.

Highlights

Municipal authorities, non-governmental bodies, and diverse local actors are at the frontline of climate action
This paper considers the recent evolution of climate agendas in the eThekwini metropolitan municipality and the adjacent Ugu district municipality on the south coast of KwaZulu-Natal province (KZN), South Africa (SA)
Further noteworthy developments since 2010 and the research reported in Leck and Simon [14] and Leck and Crick [8] include the development of the Ugu Climate Change Response Strategy (Ugu CCRS) [49], a growing focus on community-based adaptation [Interview, 14 December 2017], and increasing emphasis on networking and collaboration at multiple scales, through the Durban Adaptation Charter (DAC) and Central KwaZulu Natal Climate Change Compact (CKZNCCC)

Summary

Introduction

Non-governmental bodies, and diverse local actors are at the frontline of climate action. The significance of their governance processes and challenges is not limited to the South African context, but has far wider relevance for addressing environmental, social, and economic equity and justice in complex municipal formations anywhere These are characterized by politico-administrative boundaries delimiting discontinuities of resources and institutional capacities that cross-cut biophysical and socio-ecological systems for which holistic, integrated climate change action is important. Addressing these disparities, especially through encouraging inter-municipal collaboration, between neighbouring as well as more distant municipalities, is important for joined-up climate change and environmental policy and action across urban regions in SA and globally which is characterized by such disparities Such collaboration is necessary for adaptation measures and processes such as coastal sand dune reinforcement that straddle politico-administrative boundaries. The following section contextualizes the South African local government policy arena

The South African Policy Environment for Climate Change Adaptation

Shifting Perceptions and Approaches to Collaboration

Concluding Reflections