OUR BURNING PLANET: BUDGET2020: Mboweni big on organic manure, gets mixed reviews on addressing climate crisis By Tiara Walters
Minister of Finance Tito Mboweni’s Budget speech offered some “good noises” for spending on environmental priorities.
However, fingering poor policy for Mboweni’s blurred Budget focus on climate and the environment, that’s where Fakir’s sympathy ended. She said R1.9-billion had been earmarked in “2020 to restore wetlands, estuaries and coastal dunes to better protect built infrastructure and human settlements from storms, floods and sea level rise”.South Africa’s vulnerability to climate change is exacerbated” by, among others, its “dependency on coal-fired power generation”.
Announced to a lively chamber during Ramaphosa’s recent address was a project the president singled out as close to his heart — piloting the construction of environmentally advanced smart cities. In general, he said, there was “nothing new. Most seriously of all, there’s no economic vision, which reflects the absence of a coherent macro-economic policy and theory.”“South Africa showed significant leadership in this area post-1994, but it’s not as strong as it should be,” he cautioned. “There’s a dearth of a very strong vision for the next 15/20 years.”“Creecy is trying to rebuild South Africa’s presence in the climate space.
On the environmental front, it all felt closer to Budget-lite — a speech that may have been delivered at any time in South Africa’s recent history. One might be forgiven for thinking that organic manure sat higher on the commitment ladder than policy cultivation — even as scientific consensus under the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns that governments have less than 10 years to fully disaster-proof global natural capital.
“The alternative is a solution to the energy crisis that generates massive new local and international investment in decarbonisation. That will trigger the largest industrialisation since 1994.”
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