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

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.

Explore, Design and Act for Sustainability: A Participatory Planning Approach for Local Energy Sustainability

“…Kamara argued that collective governance is still in its infancy in South Africa [13]. Leck and Simon [14] showed that maximum effectiveness of local government initiatives can only be achieved when collaborative governance includes all complementary skills and resources from all relevant private, local, regional and national institutions. Gollagher and Hartz-Karp [50] offered deliberative collaborative governance as a logical hybrid of two closely related terms, namely 'deliberative democracy' and 'collaborative governance', for dealing especially with complex problems such as sustainability issues.…”

“…When drawing on the literature of collaborative governance [13,14,49], maximum effectiveness in the implementation of the EDAS approach can only be achieved if the approach is formalised within a local government; therefore, it should form part of the local government's policies and should include clear roles and responsibilities for all stakeholders, whether private, local, regional or national.…”

“…Public participation is a democratic right of all South African citizens, as stipulated in the Constitution of South Africa [12], but limited evidence could be found in the literature on how public participation is being facilitated, as well as on its effectiveness. The literature further shows that the engagement of public agencies and non-state holders in collective decision making or collaborative governance is still in its infancy in South Africa [13,14]. The aim of this paper is therefore to close the research gap in proposing a participatory planning approach to plan for local energy sustainability in a developing country such as South Africa.…”

Climate Resilient Urban Development

“…One of the central themes from the collated papers relates to the institutional dimension of enhancing urban climate resilience e.g. analyzing the challenges and opportunities facing the Pacific urban agenda [1]; reviewing urban planning research for climate change [2]; assessing municipal government adaptation strategies in South Korea [3]; examining transboundary issues between neighboring local authorities in South Africa [4]; and analyzing the interface of actors, institutions, and physical infrastructure in relation to water management in NE Thailand [5].…”

“…"Local Authority Responses to Climate Change in South Africa: The Challenges of Transboundary Governance" [4] focused on the development of adaptation strategies in two adjacent municipalities in Natal province, South Africa. These municipalities (one urban, the other predominantly peri-urban/rural), whilst separated by administrative boundaries, share common biophysical, politico-economic, and social systems.…”