South Africa Faces R250 Billion Climate Adaptation Cost Over Next Decade
South Africa requires R250 billion over the next decade to address critical climate adaptation needs, including water scarcity, health threats, and infrastructure damage.
South Africa is confronting significant climate risks, including water scarcity, health threats, food insecurity, infrastructure damage, biodiversity losses, and declining labor productivity. These challenges are intensified by global warming and the increasing frequency of extreme weather events such as heatwaves, droughts, heavy rains, coastal storm surges, high winds, and wildfires.
Particularly vulnerable provinces include KwaZulu-Natal, North West, Limpopo, and Eastern Cape, which require prioritized support. To address these issues, seven adaptation goals have been identified:
- Strengthening water and sanitation systems to withstand droughts and floods.
- Enhancing healthcare and sanitation, especially in informal settlements, to protect vulnerable households.
- Supporting farmers and fishers to adapt to changing weather patterns.
- Protecting nature and biodiversity.
- Ensuring infrastructure resilience against extreme weather.
- Adapting towns and cities to climate change.
- Implementing the National Adaptation Strategy and Plan as mandated by the Climate Change Act.
Achieving these goals necessitates 36 immediate actions, including replacing portable toilets in informal settlements with sanitation blocks, improving early warning systems for extreme weather, ensuring a reliable water supply, installing waterless sanitation systems, clearing invasive plants from water catchment areas, building climate-resilient emergency shelters, training additional social workers, maintaining rivers and roads, supporting farmers with drought-resistant crops, and developing a national climate impact inventory.
The estimated cost for these initiatives is R25 billion per annum over the next 10 years, totaling R250 billion. Approximately 75% of this budget is allocated to adapting water and sanitation systems to changing climate conditions. Funding is expected to come from development finance, donor funds, and increased private sector investment. Establishing climate financing platforms that blend public and private investment is essential to support adaptation and climate-resilient development.
This research was conducted at the request of the South African government to support the development of the country's second Nationally Determined Contribution under the Paris Agreement.
