South Africa’s Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Water and Environmental Affairs has called for public input on the country’s draft climate change policy, currently still a Green Paper, ahead of Parliamentary hearings into the proposed policy in February or early March 2011.

The committee has asked that interested stakeholders submit their comments by February 15, whereafter the hearings would be scheduled.

South Africa’s Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) released the Green Paper in November 2010 and was also seeking comments from stakeholders, which were required for submission by February 11, 2011.

Portfolio Committee on Water and Environmental Affairs chairperson Advocate Johnny de Lange explained that the Parliamentary process would ensure a more participatory approach into the drawing up of the White Paper.

“The executive itself, the department, does not have a participatory process – they ask people for comment, and they deal with those comments. Now what we are going to do, is letting people participate in the process, and whatever views we receive, we will then feed that in to the Minister’s process,” De Lange said.

The DEA would then be able to use both processes to finalise its policy.

It was also an attempt to make the processes more integrated, and streamlined, involving Parliament throughout the entire process, and not only when the White Paper was finally drawn up.

It was expected that the final Climate Change White Paper should be released by mid-2011.

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change conference would be held in Durban later this year, and it was anticipated that this would put pressure on the government to finalise some of it’s long awaited environmental policies.

In its statement, Parliament said that the impacts of climate change, in terms of diminished natural resources, increased flooding and drought, reduced agricultural production, worsening food insecurity and spreading diseases, were already evident in South Africa, with many poor communities bearing the full brunt of these adverse impacts.

“The risks and challenges of climate change for the country and future generations are colossal - needing urgent mitigation and adaptations measures,” the statement reiterated.

The need for all South Africans to have a shared understanding of climate change and the mechanisms for transforming its threats into opportunities for sustainable development cannot be over emphasized, Parliament continued.