Knowledge is power

The tiny village of Khomele, home to 566 inhabitants, is located in a fertile region of South Africa. Farming conditions in the province of Limpopo are theoretically ideal, with the village's fields protected by harsh weather by the Soutpans mountain. Farmers in the valley cultivate corn and millet, papayas and mangos. Goat and cattle graze in the fields.

Life in the village revolves around the rainy season between October and March. But the rains are no longer reliable, and these days, local farmers often wait in vain for the water they depend on for their livelihoods.

Even though this is an effect of climate change, the locals are unfamiliar with the concept. According to a study carried out by the University of Sheffield, they tend to blame the dry periods on evil spirits.

"Everyday we see how nature is changing but we don‘t have a name for what is happening," the village chief told the researchers.

When the rains finally come, they're often a mixed blessing. Now that their arrival is unpredictable the results can be tragic – once, they caused the Tshishiru River to overflow, destroying half the village.

People unaware of climate change

In environmental terms, South Africa is in a desperate situation. Much of South Africa consists of desert and semi-desert and global warming is responsible for increasingly extreme weather.

The country saw three major floods in the space of just five years, and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has expressed concern that drought and floods will eventually lead to struggles over redistribution of land and water.

In its 2011 special report on extreme weather, the IPCC warned that heavier rainfall, fiercer storms and intensifying droughts are likely to strike the region in the coming decades with increasing regularity.

The regions affected would have little chance of recovery, the report said, adding that it would be almost impossible to adjust infrastructure to cope with the changes.

The study also said that climate change is hitting the poor the hardest. The livelihoods of small farmers are closely tied to weather conditions. At the same time they are the ones least aware of the causes of dramatic weather changes, it said.

Clearly, a top priority in South Africa is to raise awareness of climate change in order to fight it.

"The worst offenders are obviously elsewhere," said Irene Lukassowitz, who works for the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) and Indalo Yethu (an agency of the South African Department of Environmental Affairs implementing education awareness programs).

"But everyone can contribute to protecting the environment. People cannot be left to their ignorance and powerlessness, they need to be involved."

Rethinking energy supplies

The South African government has reached the same conclusion.

"Climate change has already become a reality,“ environment minister Edna Molewa told parliament in April 2011. "Agricultural production has dropped and food prices are rising. Our answer to climate change needs to be that we will seize the new opportunities for growth stemming from global climate protection."

The country aims to build wind farms and solar plants that will boost the share of renewable energy in the national power supply to 15 percent by 2025 and create 50,000 jobs. Another goal is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 42 percent by the same deadline.

But the climate sector is very much a work in progress. Vast coal reserves and low wages makes South Africa's energy costs among the lowest in the world. At the same time, Africa's most robust economy is also its biggest CO2 emitter.

South Africa's emission rate is 10 tones of CO2 per capita per year - 43 percent more than the global average, even though 30 percent of South Africans are off-grid.

Coal liquefaction plants only worsen the situation. These were originally designed to reduce South Africa's dependency on oil imports during Apartheid. Secunda CTL, a synthetic fuel plant owned by Sasol at Secunda, emits an annual 75.4 million tones of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, making it one of the world's single biggest emitter of CO2.

Think local, go global

For the time being, the most effective projects are modest ones. After the last floods in Khomele, locals built the damn higher and stopped building huts directly on the river bank. And the village chief makes sure that no one chops down trees to make money selling firewood.

In cooperation with the University of Sheffield, beans that used to grow in the valley have been reintroduced. They can survive with less water and also help stabilize the earth with their root system. That allows the planting of much more sensitive corn atop it in winter.

This return to tried and tested farming strategies allows the people of Limpopo to play their own part in making the world a better place.

Wiebke Feuersenger (jp)
Editor: Sonia Phalnikar