ACDI - Ningapi.ning.com/.../ACDIBookletforWeb.pdfIn addition to cross university activities, the ACDI supports innovative research in partnership with government, business and civil

ACDIAfrican Climate & Development Initiative

The ACDI coordinates cutting-edge research and training on the twin issues climate change and sustainable development, from a strongly African perspective. The Initiative draws on the intellectual capital of the range of disciplines at UCT and external collaborators, to create the largest concentration of expertise in climate and development in Africa. We aim to stimulate the interdisciplinary research and training that is needed to address the pressing issues of low carbon and climate resilient development.

CONTENTS

African Climate & Development Initiative (ACDI)

African Centre for Cities (ACC)

Centre for Film & Media Studies

Centre for Occupational & Environmental Health Research (COEHR)

Centre of Criminology

Climate Systems Analysis Group (CSAG)

Democratic Governance & Rights Unit

Department of Botany

Department of Environmental & Geographical Science

Department of Oceanography

Energy Research Centre (ERC)

Environmental Evaluation Unit (EEU)

Environmental-Economics Policy Research Unit

Environmental & Process Systems Engineering Research Group

Faculty of the Humanities

Gordon Institute for Performing and Creative Arts (GIPCA)

Green Campus Initiative (GCI)

Institute of Marine & Environmental Law

Marine Research (Ma-Re) Institute

Percy FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology

Plant Conservation Unit

School Development Unit (SDU)

Sustainable Enterprise & Emergent Change Research Group

Master’s in Climate Change & Development

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ACDI | University of Cape Town

AFRICAN CLIMATE & DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVEwww.acdi.uct.ac.za

[email protected]

African Climate & Development Initiative

The African Climate and Development Initiative (ACDI) has been established at UCT to facilitate, stimulate and coordinate partnerships and knowledge across disciplines on climate and development issues. With a strong African and Global South perspective, the ACDI’s work is focused on research, teaching at post-graduate level, public awareness and close interaction with policy makers, business and civil society. Its interdisciplinary focus provides a multi-layered perspective on climate change and development, bringing both interdisciplinary breadth and specialist depth to problems and solutions.

“Providing the scientific underpinnings and skills for ideas and actions on the critical issues of climate and development that are faced by South Africa and the wider African continent.”

Research Partnerships

In addition to cross university activities, the ACDI supports innovative research in partnership with government, business and civil society. For example, the Climate Change Think Tank is a partnership between ACDI, the African Centre for Cities, and the City of Cape Town, where researchers work with the city to develop better understanding of key mitigation and adaptation issues facing the City of Cape Town, and to incorporate research insights into city policy. The Wild Coast Living Laboratory is an alliance between UCT, several other universities, Eastern Cape Parks, and local communities that undertakes research and community education to address the issues of climate, develop-ment and conservation in community-owned nature reserves.

Graduate and Professional Training

ACDI convenes a one-year coursework Masters in Climate Change and Development, which provides students with interdisciplinary training in climate change and sustainable development, with a specific focus on the issues of relevance to African development. The Masters includes core modules in Climate Science, Energy, Development Economics and Adaptation, and optional courses across a spectrum of disciplines, including Business Sustain-ability, Biodiversity, Climate Prediction and Environmental Law. Many of these modules can also be taken as professional short courses, and a number of summer and winter courses for practitioners are also offered. ACDI supports Masters and PhD research through the ACDI Graduate Network, a forum for students from different departments to interact across disciplinary boundaries to explore innovative approaches to their research.

Community Engagement

The Initiative engages with civil society and NGOs to enhance public under-standing of climate change and to inspire community engagement in solutions to climate change. For example, the UCT branch of Engineers without Borders and the Environmental and Process Systems Engineering Research Group has worked with the Abilimi urban garden scheme in Khayelitsha to install a biodigester. The digester provides a complete waste cycle, with organic waste used to produce valuable manure and cooking gas, and acts to show the wider community how the technology can provide a sound and easily implementable renewable energy solution.1

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“While much of what needs to be done in

Africa on the climate issue is political

and economic, it is important that the

research community works to provide

the best evidence, appropriate to the

African situation, for political and economic

decision makers. There are exciting research and

education challenges in climate and development

in Africa – and a responsibility to take them on.”

Professor Mark New,

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ACDI | University of Cape Town African Centre for Cities

Cape Town’s Climate Change Think Tank

This inter-disciplinary partnership between the City of Cape Town metropoli-tan government, the University of Cape Town (UCT), local businesses and NGOs has commissioned and reviewed work from a variety of disciplines (law, economics, engineering, ecology and oceanography) to examine the systemic risks associated with climate change. Since 2009 the Think Tank has embedded climate change research knowledge into Cape Town’s responses to climate change and contributed to growing policy coherence across key City institutions.

Contact: Anton Cartwright, [email protected]

Climate Change CityLab

The Mistra Urban Futures Climate Change CityLab programme involves a formal relationship between the ACC, the City of Cape Town and the Provin-cial Government of the Western Cape to develop and transfer knowledge on sustainable urban development and facilitate cooperation between academia, business, interest organisations and the public. ACC’s work focuses on adapting to climate risks, building a greener economy and planning for a low-carbon city that is just and equitable.

Contact: Warren Smit, [email protected]

Cape Town Climate Change Coalition & Climate Smart Cape Town

ACC is an active partner within the Cape Town Climate Change Coalition (CTCCC). Officially launched in March 2011, during the ICLEI conference on Local Climate Solutions for Africa 2011, the CTCCC is an alliance of organisa-tions committed to sharing knowledge and strengthening capacity to act on climate change across the city.

Contact: Anton Cartwright, [email protected]

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“Africa is the fastest urbanising region in

the world; it has fast become the focus of

increasing attention from architects and

planners, academics, development agencies

and urban think-tanks. Rapid urbanisation

along with impressive economic growth rates

for much of the continent presents an interesting

moment to take stock of how academic discourses

capture and animate African urbanism.”

Professor Edgar Pieterse

AFRICAN CENTRE FOR CITIESafricancentreforcities.net

“The African Centre for Cities seeks to facilitate critical urban research and policy discourses for the promotion of vibrant, democratic and sustainable urban development in the global South from an African perspective.”

The African Centre for Cities (ACC) is an interdisciplinary research and teaching programme established in 2007 in recognition of the growing importance of cities, especially in developing nations. The ACC focuses on urbanization processes in Africa and aims to help understand and solve the growing threats of urban inequality, environmental degradation, climate stresses and social conflicts. The knowledge that is generated through research has helped to establish tailored capacity development products and services for the alleviation of the urban crisis. The Centre is establishing critiques and alternatives that can be utilised to approach urban issues in a comprehensive and innovative manner, which will lead to the establishment of well-functioning urban areas across Africa and the global South. The ACC collaborates with policy-making centres in the public sector in South Africa at the national, provincial and local level. Besides research, the Centre further aims to encourage capacity building across African institutions and networks to develop urban research and training, especially through targeted advocacy with the aim of influencing development agencies that mould the urban development agenda in Africa and the global South.

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“Climate change is a complex topic that

from typical science reporting.

Studies suggest that we should never

underestimate the role of media in shaping

controversies related to climate change at the

national level.” Dr. Ibrahim Saleh

Climate Crossroads. Towards Precautionary Practices: Politics, Media and Climate Change

The Centre for Film & Media Studies is part of this collaborative research project together with the University of Bergen and Oslo University College in Norway. The project aims to illuminate the problems with translating knowl-edge about climate change to climate politics, with a specific focus on what role the media plays in this relationship. Through its transnational research collaborations, the project provides comparative perspectives from the global North and the global South.

Contact: Dr. Ibrahim Saleh, [email protected]

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The Centre for Film & Media Studies

THE CENTRE FOR FILM & MEDIA STUDIESwww.cfms.uct.ac.za

“The CFMS is committed to address the media and political issues related to the risks associated with climate change. Research projects and media monitoring focus primarily on the diversity of public spheres within the global south and how media discourses are drawn in to address these socio-political and economic global challenges.”

The Centre for Film and Media Studies (CFMS) is growing its reputation as a leading institute in media studies. The Centre enhances its teaching by basing it on current research and on creative projects, and on strengthening the critical skills and creative insights of its students. Students can subscribe to two streams that are offered at the Centre, namely Media and Writing and Film and Television Studies. Several of the related courses incorporate a focus on climate change. The Department provides its students with the practical skills and theoretical background that they will need to be cutting-edge practitioners within their respective fields, and that will lead to the enhancement of this field in South Africa. Some of the country’s most prominent journalists and media practitioners are graduates from CFMS, testifying to the strength of the Department’s undergraduate and postgraduate courses.

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ACDI | University of Cape Town Centre for Occupational & Environmental Health Research

Climate Change, Health and Health Policy

The Climate change, health and health policy initiative consists of a series of projects that focus on the interface between climate change and various health-related issues. One such project, led by Professor Jonny Myers and T Tucker, undertakes research that focuses on understanding the links between climate change and health in Southern Africa. The Imagining a Warmer World project led by Professor Jonny Myers uses scenario planning to create fair and equitable adaptation law and policy. Researchers are also working on the elaboration of a framework of researchable topics on health and climate change in the Western Cape Province and South Africa. An inter-disciplinary research initiate headed by the Environmental and Geographical Science Department and COEHR observes the impact of climate change on reproductive health effects and allergic respiratory disease of endocrine disrupting pesticides while another project investigates the influence of temperature on aggressive behaviour in Cape Town.

Contact: Professor Jonny Myers, [email protected]

Civil Society Engagement with Climate Change

The COEHR is supporting civil society engagement with Climate Change initiatives in health through its involvement in the People’s Health Movement’s (PHM’s) Climate Change work. The PHM is a global social movement in health which has a South African chapter developing advocacy and training on Climate Change aimed at communities concerned with health.

Contact: Professor Leslie London, [email protected]

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CENTRE FOR OCCUPATIONAL & ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH RESEARCH www.oehru.uct.ac.za/objectives/objectives.php

“Research, teaching and service provision that integrates laboratory, clinical, epidemiological and policy skills in relation to occupational and environmental health problems that have high priority in southern Africa.”

The Centre for Occupational and Environmental Health Research (COEHR), located in the University of Cape Town’s (UCT’s) Faculty of Health Sciences, aims to be a Centre of Excellence in occupational and environmental health research, teaching, training, advice and advocacy, particularly in Africa. In order to enhance research on occupational and environmental health problems that are of immense magnitude for the Southern African region, the Centre aims to improve the identification and characterisation of occupational and environmental health problems. By better ascertaining the determinants of these problems and their potential solutions, through multidisciplinary research, teaching and service provision that includes laboratory, clinical, epidemiological, social science and policy skills, the Centre seeks to ensure its research provides applications to address these problems. The centre is a World Health Organisation (WHO) collaborating centre in Occupational Health.

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Environmental Security Programme

In its environmental security work to date the Centre has explored how communities manage the increasing risks associated with climate change, how regulatory institutions contribute to these processes, as well as what alliances can be, and are continually being built between them. Using its collaborations to successfully improve physical understanding of the changes occurring in local ecosystems and the Centre’s focus on the governance landscape, a rich understanding of the challenges and opportunities, presented by climate change, is emerging. To date, the Centre has partnered with one of South Africa’s leading short-term insurers, earth scientists at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), local governments, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and a variety of civil society and community based organizations.

Contact: Tom Herbstein, [email protected]

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“Our environment, which has been so

crucial to sustaining us, is changing

in ways that threaten our security. As

a consequence, we are being presented

with a whole new series of risks that are

requiring us to rethink the nature of our

security and how it can be preserved.”

The Centre of Criminology

THE CENTRE OF CRIMINOLOGYwww.criminology.uct.ac.za

“The concept of Environmental Security acknowledges the changing nature of ‘security’ within our contemporary world. It draws attention to the emerging recognition of the economic significance of earth systems, and their eco-system services, that humans depend upon for their survival. This includes, but is by no means limited to, climate change, an issue likely to dominate much of the 21st Century’s security concerns.”

The Centre of Criminology is based within the Law Faculty’s Department of Public Law. In light of the sharp deterioration in the global environment, and the local impact this is having on eco-systems and communities across Africa, the Centre has incorporated a study of environmental security governance into its overarching security governance programme. This is a new and critical area of enquiry, where the primary focus is on understanding how the governance environment, in particularly its primary regulatory institutions, shape environmental risk. This emerging research programme seeks to identify, and work with regulatory institutions directly impacted by global environmen-tal change and explore how their regulatory potential might be utilized to mitigate and adapt to the threats faced. The programme is particularly concerned with exploring how the potential of regulatory institutions, with wide-ranging regulatory influence, might be harnessed. Three primary categories of regulatory institutions are being investigated: public (e.g. local government), private (e.g. the insurance sector) and civil society (e.g. pressure groups). A signature feature of the Centre’s research is the close collaborative partnerships it builds with other institutions across the science, education, public and private sector divides.

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“Climate change is a multi-generational

challenge that asks society to look

beyond immediate self-interests. Our

collective responsibility is to build

capacity to research, understand, and

wisely apply the most robust knowledge we

can develop.”

Professor Bruce Hewitson

The Climate Systems Analysis Group

WCRP CORDEX global project

CSAG is the Africa-lead for the Co-Ordinated Regional Climate Downscaling Experiment (CORDEX), an initiative sponsored by World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) to produce multiple dynamical and statistical downscaling models driven by global climate models from the CMIP5 archive, for input into IPCC AR5. The initial focus of the experiment is to produce downscaled data over Africa, a region for which there is very little regional climate information and understanding. This has a direct impact on the ability of African countries to accurately assess their vulnerabilities to climate variability and future climate change. A CORDEX-Africa team has been formed to analyze the data from the regional downscaling and relate these analyses to various vulnerability, impacts and adaptation communities and institutions.

Contact: Professor Bruce Hewitson, [email protected].

Web: www.csag.uct.ac.za/cordexworkshop2/

CSAG/UNITAR Climate Information Portal (CIP)

The Climate Information Portal (CIP) is a web interface that integrates two important information sources - a climate database and an extensive collec-tion of guidance documentation, into one easy to use resource. The climate database stores and manages queries to a large suite of observational climate data as well as projections of future climate. The philosophy guiding CIP is that data is not information and as such only has value when well interpreted and correctly used or applied to appropriate problems. CIP has been designed to be easy to use so as to provide simple access to various climate information for a wide range of users. However, CIP has also been designed to offer important features such as data downloads that suit users more familiar with climate data.

Contact: Professor Bruce Hewitson, [email protected]

Web: cip.csag.uct.ac.za

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THE CLIMATE SYSTEMS ANALYSIS GROUPwww.csag.uct.ac.za

“Africa is characterized by sharp contrasts, a fluid political, social and economic situation, a highly variable and changing climate system, and challenging poverty and development issues. Consequently, every sector of society in Africa is especially vulnerable to additional stress arising from climate change. ”

The Climate Systems Analysis Group (CSAG) is a multidisciplinary climate research unit that has been evolving a unique strategy for research in Africa. Blending core disciplinary depth in atmospheric science, climate modelling, and applied climate analysis with multidisciplinary elements of vulnerability, impacts and adaptation science, CSAG offers a unique integration of relevant research to developing nation needs. These resources are coupled with proactive capacity building activities across the continent and strategic efforts to bridge the science-society communication challenges. For example, CSAG offers a 2-week winter school focused on using climate information for adaptation and policy development, hosts visiting scientists, students and interns under the START fellowship programme. From these foundations CSAG seeks to apply the core research to meet the knowledge needs of responding to climate variability and change.

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ACDI | University of Cape Town Democratic Governance & Rights Unit

The Climate Finance Governance Initiative

The DGRU has two main areas of work, namely judicial governance and access to information/political participation. This second area has encompassed work on issues of climate finance governance and multi-stakeholder governance, in particular on the information disclosure and transparency dimensions to climate finance and the Green Climate Fund (GCF), and tracking the Transitional Committee (TC) on the design of the GCF. Climate finance, and the GCF, is of great importance to Africa, where the need to adapt in the face of the pressure of climate change are most severe. Properly governed, with adequate scope for participation and social accountability mechanisms, the GCF provides an opportunity for transformation. The DGRU will continue to conduct research on the governance and institutional arrangements for the GCF in Africa. Partners in this work include Idasa (the African Democracy Institute), the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the University of Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership.

Contact: Professor Richard Calland, [email protected]

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“Central to climate change

mitigation and adaptation is the

question of governance – how to

promote the values of good citizenship

and human rights, enhancing

transparency and accountability, sensitivity to

human impact on the environment, building a

culture which promotes and respects diversity,

and the development of internal capacity through

role-modelling and peer learning.”

Associate Professor Richard Calland

DEMOCRATIC GOVERNANCE & RIGHTS UNITwww.dgru.uct.ac.za

“Recognising the gap between the promise of constitutionalism and the reality of daily life for the majority of Africans, the Democratic Governance and Rights Unit aims to stimulate fresh thinking on the intersection between rights and transformative governance.”

The Democratic Governance and Rights Unit (DGRU), located within the Public Law Department, facilitates analysis regarding the relationship between rights and governance. Its work focuses on the intersection between public administration, with the challenge of public accountability, on the one hand, and the realization of constitutionally-enshrined human rights on the other. The DGRU oversees the process of law and policy reform, and informs public debate, through inter-disciplinary research and advocacy. The research of the DGRU concentrates on constitutionalism and the rule of law, the right to information and transparency and judicial governance. Through this research and advocacy, the DGRU aims to advance democracy and human rights in South Africa and throughout the rest of Africa.

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CO2 Fertilization

Investigating the photosynthetic, growth and carbon allocation responses of African savanna trees (Acacia karroo and Acacia nilotica) to a gradient of CO2 concentrations, the Botany Department has conducted a number of experi-ments in collaboration with the South African National Biodiversity Institute. Exposing the trees to a gradient of CO2 concentrations in open-top chambers in a glasshouse, it was found that photosynthesis, total stem length, total stem diameter, shoot dry weight and root dry weight of the acacias increased significantly across the CO2 gradient, saturating at higher CO2 concentrations. This is important research in the light of the current prospects of rising CO2 concentrations, seeing that it has been suggested that low CO2 concentra-tions contributed to reduced tree cover in savanna and grassland biomes at the Last Glacial Maximum, and that increasing CO2 concentrations over the last century promoted increases in woody plants in these ecosystems over the past few decades. The plan is for the research project to expand into field experiments, in order to further validate the importance of CO2 in tree invasions and grassy ecosystems.

Contact: Professor William Bond, [email protected]

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Large changes in landcover have been

documented across South Africa in

the last century. We know this has

of all South Africans. What we need

now is the answers as to why and how we can

Professor William Bond

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Department of Botany

DEPARTMENT OF BOTANYwww.botany.uct.ac.za

“The Botany department at the University of Cape Town is situated in one of the most diverse and interesting floral kingdoms in the world; namely the fynbos of the Western Cape mountains. Also close to Cape Town is the most diverse arid system in the world; the succulent Karoo.”

The Department of Botany focuses on research and teaching in the spheres of physiology, ecology, evolution, systematics and the conservation of terrestrial and aquatic plants, most prominently as they relate to the flora of the Southwestern Cape Region of South Africa. The Department integrates research outreach into a number of prime ecological sites, namely the fynbos of the Western Cape mountains, the succulent Karoo and regional biomes such as forests and diverse marine flora. The Department’s researchers have invaluable expertise in the fields of ecology, evolution and conservation biology. Within the Department there are two research units, namely the Bolus Herbarium and Leslie Hill Institute for Plant Conservation, and the Department also hosts the Department of Environmental Affairs & Tourism Chief Directorate: Marine & Coastal Management. Thematically, the Department’s research focuses on the following areas: systematics, floristics, biogeography and the evolutionary biology of the unique Cape Floral Kingdom and its response to different land use practices; plant population, community and reproductive ecology; plant molecular systematics, angiosperm biosystematics; bryophyte evolution and ecology; biogeography, ecology and the economics of marine and freshwater algae; ecophysiology of plant responses to pollution and global change and plant nutrition; and dendrochronology and palaeoecology.

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ACDI | University of Cape Town Department of Environmental & Geographical Science

Rock Hyrax Middens and Climate Change in Southern Africa during the Last 50 000 Years

Exploiting an ages old behavioural pattern, researchers from the Environmental and Geographical Science Department use urine deposits from the dassie, Procavia capensis, to get an insight into historical climate change. Colonial in habit, dassies urinate in particular sheltered localities, year after year, and so that accumulations of urine and faecal pellets may accumulate literally over tens of thousands of years, providing archives of changing climate and other environmental conditions over long periods. With these records in place, scientists can follow a climatological timeline and then be in a better position to more accurately forecast what may happen in the future. While the department has thus far been limited to focusing on dassie colonies in the Western Cape, Northern Cape and Namibia, they are now expanding their focus to larger parts of Southern Africa.

Contact: Professor Michael Meadows, [email protected]

Dust Observations For Models (DO4)

Researchers in the Department are conducting work around some of the world’s major dust sources and their contribution in driving global climate dynamics. Supply of fine materials from salty dry lakes, which are some of the world’s major dust sources, is subject to significant spatial and temporal variation. Such surface variability needs to be taken into account when producing future climate models. A mini documentary of the research can be found at this link, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJ4oBTVreBg. Dr Frank Eckardt and a graduate student are working closely within this British funded NERC project, hosted at the University of Oxford, and enjoy additional collaborations with the University of Sheffield and the University of Southampton, as well as the Climate Systems Analysis Group, based at UCT.

Contact: Dr. Frank Eckhardt, [email protected]

www.geog.ox.ac.uk/research/climate/projects/do4models.html

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variability risk is managed in a technical, top-down

way by the City of Cape Town. We believe there’s

room for a multilevel, collaborative response.

It’s clear that we need to respond better to current

climate variability and climate risks, and we have

information and institutions that can help us to do so,

but we’re not doing it very well at the moment.”

Dr. Gina Ziervogel

DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL & GEOGRAPHICAL SCIENCEwww.egs.uct.ac.za

“The department is committed to the development of knowledge, understanding, and management of the interactions between humans and their social, biological, and physical life-support systems, and to the recognition of the values conducive to the sustained operation of these systems.”

The Environmental and Geographical Science Department adopts an integrated approach to the human-environment complex. In essence, the teaching, research and outreach work of the department is aimed at developing our understanding of the relationships between human beings and their social, biological, and physical life-support systems with a focus on the local, regional and national situation. Fusing knowledge assimilated from both the social and natural sciences, the Department takes an interdisciplinary research approach to better understand the relations between humans and their environment and the spatial and temporal variability of this environment. The Department’s research is focused around several overlapping areas: climatology, climate-change issues, environmental sustainability, Quaternary environmental change, soil erosion and land degradation, environmental management, urban issues, third-world-development issues and remote sensing. The Department also oversees a project for Urban Food Security and HIV/AIDS in Southern Africa.

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Gateways

This project involves collaboration between UCT Oceanography and several institutions in Europe. Its aims are to understand the influence of the Agulhas Current in the current climate, in previous climates and in climates of the future. Previous work by scientists at UCT and others has shown that variations in the Agulhas Current play an important role in the development of severe weather events over South Africa and in rainfall changes over large areas of southern Africa. Changes in the transport of Agulhas waters into the South Atlantic, mainly through rings and large eddies, have been shown to affect the meridional circulation that exists throughout the Atlantic Ocean and hence potentially affect the climates of Eurasia and North America. The UCT contribution specifically deals with modelling the Agulhas Current system and its leakage into the South Atlantic under different forcing regimes.

Contact: Professor Chris Reason, [email protected]

Southern African Climate Multidisciplinary Analysis (SACMA)

This collaborative project involves partners from across South Africa, including the South African Weather Service, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), University of Kwa-Zulu Natal and several Departments at UCT, as well as institutions from Mozambique, France, the USA, Germany and Japan. The aim of SACMA is to create synergy between various research groups or individuals interested in ocean and atmosphere climate variability and its impacts on the society and ecosystems of Southern Africa. More specifically, the project aims to, among other things: understand mechanisms of climate variability; validate and improve numerical models used for forecasting at different time and spatial scales; develop real time monitoring and early warning systems; and use past conditions as analogue for global warming scenarios.

Contact: Dr. Mathieu Rouault, [email protected]

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“To be able to properly understand, assess and model

climate change impacts over southern Africa, one

needs to have a thorough knowledge of the atmospheric

and ocean circulations and their natural variability.”

Professor Chris Reason

Department of Oceanography

DEPARTMENT OF OCEANOGRAPHYsea.uct.ac.za

“As the only university department of its kind in sub-Saharan Africa, it is the major focus for teaching and research in physical oceanography and climate science in South Africa and elsewhere in Africa.”

The Department of Oceanography is unique to the University of Cape Town (UCT), and is one of a kind in sub-Saharan Africa, aiming to enhance knowledge regarding the climate system and the Southern Hemisphere oceans through societally-relevant undergraduate and postgraduate teaching and through research. The Department conducts research in the following areas: sea-going observations, satellite marine remote sensing, coastal oceanography, ocean and atmospheric modelling, marine and coastal meteorology, severe weather, marine biogeochemistry, and climate change and variability. The Department hosts the Marine-Research Institute, a virtual inter-faculty institute at UCT that brings together over 40 academics with marine interests, and also the Nansen-Tutu Centre which involves close collaboration with scientists at the Nansen Centre in Bergen. The aim of the Nansen-Tutu centre for Marine Environmental Research is to improve the capacity to observe, understand and predict marine ecosystem variability on time scales from days to decades in support of scientific and societal needs.

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Mitigation Action Plans and Scenarios Programme (MAPS)

MAPS combines facilitated stakeholder processes with research. The programme is a South-South collaboration between developing countries in support of their plans to implement more ambitious mitigation actions. The ERC focuses on supporting researchers in MAPS countries, in analysing actions and how that can contribute to achieving an overall reduction in the growth of emissions, building on experience of South Africa’s long-term mitigation scenarios. MAPS in each country crucially includes a participative process with stakeholders from all sectors which relies on existing in-country research capacity to feed information into the process. In this sense, MAPS is not only another study: outcomes are a product of the combination of the best indigenous and international research and an inclusive stakeholder process.

Contact person: Professor Harald Winkler, [email protected]

Web: www.mapsprogramme.org

Measurement and Performance Tracking (MAPT)

The goal of this project is to work in partnership with national actors to build capacity and promote shared perspectives and readiness among key stakeholders on the design and implementation of credible systems to make mitigation actions by developing countries measurable, reportable and verifiable (MRV), at the national, policy, and industry levels. This first scoping phase will focus on mapping existing domestic MRV capacity in South Africa and identifying needs and opportunities for capacity development. The ERC will provide expert consultation and analytical research – based advice on domestic MRV in South Africa.

Contact: Anya Boyd, [email protected]

Web:

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“We don’t know all the answers, but we do

know more than enough to take action now.

If we can change the way we develop energy

and address both the challenges of poverty

and reduced emissions, then we can have

an economy and society that can work in the

future.”

Professor Harald Winkler

The Energy Research Centre

THE ENERGY RESEARCH CENTREwww.erc.uct.ac.za

“Energy solutions for climate change mitigation that are grounded in national priorities need to be formulated and implemented urgently. Environmentally sensitive planning of energy for sustainable development is a key national priority.”

The Energy Research Centre (ERC) focuses on a multidisciplinary approach towards high-quality energy research, with a specific focus on technology, policy, sustainable development, education and capacity building. As an African-based facility, the ERC aims to establish independent and objective research that will be of local, national and global interest. Its core research focuses on energy and developmental needs, energy efficiency, modelling of energy systems and climate change mitigation. The research aims to provide a robust evidence base to address key challenges and to help decision-makers find solutions. It thus creates a nexus where energy is linked to such themes as social development, economic imperatives, the environment and climate change. Research, education and capacity building, as well as community upliftment, form the epicentre of the ERC’s energy focus. The ERC is also involved in various training and capacity building initiatives to extend knowledge dissemination, encourage sustainable development and to disburse knowledge at both the academic and community level.

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ACDI | University of Cape Town The Environmental Evaluation Unit

Touws Rivier Solar Energy Facility, Environmental Impact Assessment

Solar energy is one of a number of freely available sources for renewable power generation. CPV Power Plant No. 1 (Pty) Ltd is proposing a Solar Energy Facility comprising approximately 7,700 solar tracker units with the potential to generate 50MW of energy for national distribution. The proposed facility is approximately 12km South West of Touws Rivier and a pilot project has been erected in the vicinity to demonstrate the technology. The Concentrating Photovoltaic (CPV) technology converts energy from sunlight into electricity for contribution to the national electricity grid and is more efficient than conventional photovoltaic technology. The facility is expected to provide a number of employment opportunities within the district. The EEU was appointed to manage the environmental authorisation process which concluded on 29 August 2011 when authorisation was granted.

Contact: Sandra Rippon, [email protected]

Climate Change and Integrated Coastal Management Guidelines

The coastal zone is particularly vulnerable to climate change because of predicted sea level rise and increase in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events leading to intensive storms, increased wind and wave action and a higher tidal range. While the present rate of sea level rise is slow, it does appear to be accelerating. Planning in terms of mitigation and adaptation for climate change should therefore take into consideration long term as well as short term impacts of climate change. This study was part of a larger study managed by the African Centre for Cities at UCT which sought to provide guidance to the Western Cape government on integrating climate change considerations into planning and decision making processes. This particular report makes recommendations and provides guidelines for addressing, mitigating and adapting to the potential impacts of climate change within the integrated coastal management sector.

Contact: Associate Prof. Merle Sowman, [email protected]

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“When talking about sustainability, it’s about doing

things ‘smarter’, not necessarily about large budgets.

Although money invested in greening now will have

Associate Professor Merle Sowman;

THE ENVIRONMENTAL EVALUATION UNITwww.eeu.org.za

“In a world facing rapid environmental change, conflicts over dwindling natural resources and crises of economic, social and ecological sustainability, our work is increasingly focused on enhancing understanding of the governance of complex human-ecological systems through collaborative interdisciplinary research across natural resource sectors.”

The Environmental Evaluation Unit (EEU) is an independent, self-funded research-led unit based at the University of Cape Town (UCT), and located within the Department of Environmental and Geographical Science. Our research is strongly rooted in the arena of natural resource management and its interface with communities and social justice concerns. Over time our work has increasingly focused on enhancing the understanding of the governance of complex human-ecological systems through collaborative interdisciplinary research across natural resource sectors. Social responsiveness is at the core of the EEU’s activities. One of the most unique aspects of the EEU is its ability to work at a multitude of levels-community, national and international- making a range of contributions and hence having diverse impacts. These include developmental impacts that help communities to lobby for and realize their rights, through to top-end policy interventions at national and international level. The EEU’s activities are clustered into three interconnected thematic areas, namely coastal and fisheries governance; biodiversity and social justice; and environmental management, governance and sustainability.

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ACDI | University of Cape Town The Environmental-Economics Policy Research Unit

What Is Fair? An Experimental Guide to Climate Negotiations

Mitigation, in which greenhouse gas emissions are reduced, is a vital compo-nent of any strategy addressing climate change. In this context, international commitments to reduce emissions must be negotiated between countries. Taking a number of equity principlas relevant to climate negotiations, this study examines whether a generalisable notion of fairness might arise out of the negotiation process or whether equity principles serve as the basis for interest-based bargaining. The multi-country experiment is conducted with a large sample of university students from the United States, the European Union, China, India and South Africa and is then replicated with a small sample of researchers, government officials, consultants and academics from the same countries/regions as those mentioned above. Evidence of interest-based bargaining is found in the case of American and Chinese participants.

Contact: Dr. Martine Visser, [email protected] & Kerri Brick,

[email protected]

Towards Development and Sustainability: Shifting South Africa’s Growth Path

This project epitomises an extraordinary feature of South Africa’s recent (and not so recent) economic development – the fact that it has been so capital- and energy-intensive. The result has been high emissions, low investment productivity, low growth and high unemployment. This project will examine the causes and consequences of South Africa’s current growth path. It will test whether South Africa’s revealed ‘comparative advantage’ in processed metals and other forms of energy- and capital-intensive production has been partly derived from policy interventions which have favoured these sectors. It will then go on to explore whether a new more labour-intensive and less energy-intensive growth path would be good for economic development and good for the environment.

Contact:

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“Economic development depends on institutions

that can protect and maintain the environment’s

carrying capacity and resilience.”

Associate Professor Martine Visser

THE ENVIRONMENTAL-ECONOMICS POLICY RESEARCH UNITwww.epru.uct.ac.za

“By providing policy instruments to manage scarce natural resources, environmental economics makes a difference.”

The Environmental Economics Policy Research Unit (EPRU) is a collaborative association of academic researchers specialising in environmental and natural resource issues, and aims to promote sustainable development and poverty reduction in Southern Africa. EPRU forms part of a wider research network, the Environment for Development Initiative (EfD), with centres in South Africa, China, Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Costa Rica and Sweden. EPRU focuses on promoting the effectiveness of environmental policy-making by undertaking a threefold strategy of research, teaching and policy consultation. It has provided policy-relevant research that deals with such diverse topics as ecosystems’ management, biodiversity conservation, air quality and water quality, as well as the socio-economics of agriculture, fisheries and conservation. Climate change is one of the research themes within EfD and EPRU, and a number of the EPRU research fellows and associates are actively working on a spectrum of climate change issues.

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ACDI | University of Cape Town Environmental & Process Systems Engineering Research Group

Technology Deployment for Sustainable Urban Development

This project, supported from the Vice-Chancellor’s strategic funds, fuses engaged research with student voluntary work, focusing on a key sector of the informal economy in African cities: street catering. The UCT chapter of Engineers without Borders, the first of its kind in South Africa, contributes student energy, exposing engineering student volunteers to new terrain via engagements with communities and practitioners. Five research projects are supporting this student engagement. Amongst these is an investigation on the usage of arsenic-treated waste timber by street caterers in the Cape Town region. The intellectual centre-piece of the project is an assertion that the technologies needed to put urban development on a sustainable trajectory largely exist, but conditions are not yet conducive for their deployment. The project is strongly focused on producing Africa-relevant knowledge.

Contact:

Khayelitsha Biodigester

This project involves a a partnership of the Engineers without Borders (EwB) branch at UCT with Abalimi Bezekhaya, supported by members of the EPSE research group, to build a biogas digester at an urban food garden site. The digester will use the organic waste from the Abilimi gardens as the main substrate, and the biogas produced will be used for fuel in a soup kitchen run by members of Abalimi. The slurry by-product of the biogas will be taken to composting, eventually providing fertiliser for the Abilimi vegetable garden. While providing a complete waste cycle, with organic waste used to produce valuable manure and cooking gas, the project also provides a renewable energy solution and will potentially work to prove to members of communities at large that biogas is a sound and useful technology.

Contact: Heloise Greef, [email protected]

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1ENVIRONMENTAL & PROCESS SYSTEMS ENGINEERING RESEARCH GROUPwww.epse.uct.ac.zawww.chemeng.uct.ac.za/research/environment

“We believe that our country and our continent need development, but also that the model of the 20th century industrial economy can be neither the goal nor path for such development. Much radical innovation, and large improvements in efficiency, are needed.”

The Department of Chemical Engineering is widely regarded as the leading one of its kind in Africa. It runs an acclaimed undergraduate programme and hosts several large research centres as well as a national competence centre in fuel cell technol-ogy and the hydrogen economy. Its track record includes over five years of research aimed to improve energy and water eco-efficiency in the minerals industry, ten years of addressing sustainability concerns in bioprocess engineering and almost twenty years in environmental process engineering.

The agenda of the Environmental and Process Systems Engineering Research Group is on the apex between resource-processing, environmental concerns and Africa’s developmental needs, as they relate to the resource processing industries of the 21st century, which includes biomass, water, recyclables and minerals. It operates from a systems’ perspective and is the leading academic centre working with life cycle assessment in Africa. Its work contributes to and is informed by two signature research themes of the University of Cape Town, these being “Minerals to Metals” and “African Urbanism”. The Group assesses resource processing technologies; develops tools for assessing the environmental, social and economic impacts of technologies; creates the ideas and concepts for tools needed to enhance resource processing technologies; and trains graduates and postgraduates, improving the expertise in the South African sustainable consumption and production sectors.

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THE FACULTY OF HUMANITIESwww.sociology.uct.ac.zawww.socanth.uct.ac.zaweb.uct.ac.za/depts/politics

“…the information revolution which has taken hold globally places before us daily a wide range of texts which we are called upon to work with and to negotiate. Information is useless without interpretation…the ability to subject all seemingly neutral information to critical scrutiny becomes ever more prized. Literacy in this sense, which is associated with study in the Humanities, remains the basis for personal empowerment for citizens of the network age.”

The Faculty of Humanities brings a diverse set of perspectives on the social, cultural and political aspects of climate change and development. The Department of Sociology has a long history of research and teaching with regards to the development and understanding of South Africa and has important research foci in the following areas of relevance to development issues: poverty, HIV/Aids, worker participation and productivity, identity and diversity, changes in higher education, and urbanization and urban mobility. The Department of Social Anthropology pays attention to various social issues, particularly within the Southern Hemisphere, and utilises ethnographic research in order to foster a deeper understanding of the social realities that humans interact with on a daily basis. Research currently focuses on various issues of relevance to the environment and development: environmentalism and knowledge practices, regional and transnational migration and mobility, violence and social justice and social reconstitution, illness, particularly HIV/AIDS; gender relations, youth identities, traditional leadership and political practices, energy provision, sanitation and grey-water usage, housing and urban life and migration. At the Department of Political Studies researchers have expertise in comparative politics, international relations, political theory, political behaviour, intellectual history, public policy and public administration. The Department has important foci areas that touch the issues of climate change and development, namely Africa’s International Relations, international migration, urbanisation and poverty, third world comparative politics, development issues, as well as the developing world as an object of International Relations.

The Faculty of Humanities

“I’ve worked to develop engineering

responses to global environmental change

was an uphill battle, with many of my

engineering colleagues and university

management unconvinced of the importance of such

work. But the tide turned with the acceptance of

the ‘inconvenient truth’. Our systems approach to

sustainable development is now in much demand.”

Associate Professor Harro von Blottnitz

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sustainability. It is my role as an academic to

research the role of the state and society and how

these interact with nature and its conservation.”

Dr Frank Matose

Contested Ecologies

The Contested Ecologies research group, housed in the Department of Social Anthropology, aims to support innovative responses to the complex challeng-es of environmental management across different knowledge practices and traditions. Participating academics at the University of Cape Town (UCT) are from a range of departments, the group explores the possibilities of dialogue that generates insights across informational and relational ways of knowing. The project draws on post-colonial studies from across the global south, as well as science and technology studies, and encourages careful ethnographies of ways of knowing. The group has active ties with researchers from Latin America and Australia whose work engages regional de-colonial philosophies and indigenous movements.

Contact: Dr Lesley Green, Department of Social Anthropology,

[email protected]

Defragmenting African Resource Management (DARMA): The Dwesa-Cwebe Nature Reserve of the Transkei/Wild Coast Region of South Africa

Conflict resolution is integral to the protection of biodiversity and poverty alleviation on exploited commons, because ecological degradation leads to competition for the remaining resources. The DARMA project explores these issues at the Dwesa-Cwebe Nature Reserve of the Transkei/Wild Coast Region of South Africa, which has recently become a community-owned reserve as part of a land-restitution claim. Both poverty alleviation and the effective implementation of management require the work of social scientists, and managing conflicts requires involving stakeholders who know the locally appropriate solutions. Climate Change is an integral part of understanding the environmental issues, and the research incorporates climate change issues in so far as they impact resource management around the research site of Dwesa-Cwebe.

Contact: Dr. Frank Matose, Department of Sociology, [email protected]

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1

The Faculty of Humanities

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ACDI | University of Cape Town Gordon Institute for Performing & Creative Arts

Hot Water Festival

This unique programme brought together scientists and artists to probe the relationship between the threat of climate change and its representation in the creative and performing arts. Participants considered the hard statistics of climate change, and how the science of climate change may be formed into aesthetics, how best to communicate effectively the gravity of this subject and whether structural changes may need to be made in arts curricula to incorporate notions of climate change. There were also several performances and an exhibition on environmentally conscious art commissioned by GIPCA. Hot Water was presented in association with the African Climate and Development Initiative.

Contact:

1

“The Arts is a public platform for all –

irrespective of educational background – to

access and exchange ideas around climate

change and provoke action. It speaks to the

heart of the interdisciplinary approach that is

needed to secure environmental sustainability.”

Associate Professor Jay Pather

GORDON INSTITUTE FOR PERFORMING & CREATIVE ARTS www.gipca.uct.ac.za

“The legacy of separation and cultural isolation cannot be under-estimated, nor the pervasive lack of criticality with regards to inherited forms and ideas. The Gordon Institute for Performing and Creative Arts provides conceptual and physical space for testing these boundaries and creating possibilities for deconstructing and reforming seminal ideas that underscore creative education and practice across discipline and faculty.”

The University of Cape Town’s (UCT’s) Gordon Institute for Performing and Creative Arts (GIPCA) facilitates new collaborative and interdisciplinary creative research projects particularly focusing on the disciplines of Music, Dance, Fine Art, Drama, Creative Writing, Film and Media Studies. A key themes is linking the Arts to contemporary issues in South Africa, including environment, climate change, poverty and violence. Interdisciplinarity is a key theme of the institute and projects are imbued with innovation, collaboration and dialogue with urbanism and community. Projects bring together diverse entities; the various creative and performing art disciplines at UCT as well as the University and city and training institutions and the profession. GIPCA was launched in December 2008 with a substantial grant from Sir Donald Gordon, founder of Liberty Life.

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Green Week

The creation and commemoration of an annual Green Week, which strives to create awareness by highlighting environmental issues. This awareness-raising is done through debates, screenings, interactive displays, an Expo and a band performance on the UCT campus. In recognition of its achievements, the GCI had been awarded Team of the Year at the 2009 UCT Student Leadership Awards.

Ride Link

Ridelink is a pragmatic initiative that seeks to reduce the UCT community’s carbon emissions by promoting carpooling, bicycle use and public transport. A key component of the initiative is the Campus Carpooling System which is an online database that matches interested students up with others who live in their area.

Recycling

To reduce waste the GCI promotes recycling all over campus and within all UCT residences. It has helped establish recycling in both catering and self-catering residences on campus as a means of improving the environmental awareness of residence students, and promoting environmental consciousness as a lifestyle. The GCI also works closely with House Committees to raise awareness about environmental issues within the residences.

Outreach

Outreach programmes are an important aspect of the GCI’s work to deliver environmental information and awareness raising among poor communities. While poverty remains a huge problem in South Africa, it is not separate from environmental issues. Climate change will primarily affect those who do not have access to basic services, education, and technology to cope with this change. As such, environmental awareness is greatly needed among poor communities, as a means of equipping people with future coping skills, as well as the skills to cultivate an income.

The GCI runs various projects at the University. Some of its activities include:

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Green Campus Initiative

GREEN CAMPUS INITIATIVE www.greening.uct.ac.za

[email protected]

The Green Campus Initiative (GCI) was established in 2007 by a handful of students and staff to address issues of sustainability at the University of Cape Town (UCT). It has grown every year and now has over 4000 members. Individuals who are part of the GCI are concerned about the environment and wish to take action against mindless consumption while promoting environmental sustainability. The GCI is a fresh, dynamic and action-based organisation that wishes to bring about lasting change and to make UCT a more environmentally-friendly institution.

Most of the GCI’s actions are guided by the Green Campus Action Plan commissioned by the Properties and Services Department, and involves cooperation amongst students, professionals and academic staff.

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ACDI | University of Cape Town Institute of Marine & Environmental Law

climate change on African coastal zones

Thirty three countries on the African continent and several island nations in the region have coastlines, many of which are vulnerable to sea level rise and climate change. The effects are likely to include increased coastal erosion and flooding, loss of low-lying agricultural and urban land, destruction of wetland habitats, salinization of water resources and the enforced migration of coastal communities. Professor John Gibson is examining the adequacy of existing legal and institutional arrangements at national and regional levels to meet these challenges, and seeking to identify opportunities and constraints for achieving adaptive coastal management in African countries.

Contact: Professor John Gibson, [email protected]

The relationship between implementation of measures under the climate change regime and the multilateral trading system

This research examines the impact of climate change on trade in the African region and considers response measures to climate change in the context of the regime created by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). An overview of the trade and environment debate is followed by an analysis of how response measures to climate change may relate to World Trade Organisation (WTO) trade rules. The final section discusses post-Kyoto measures and possibilities for compromise with the multilateral trading system. Professor Loretta Feris notes that trade measures may in fact negatively impact on trade from African countries, unless the multilateral trade regime creates space for appropriate exceptions. She concludes that while African countries share the responsibility for the threats posed by climate change, largely due to the global nature of the problem, it must be acknowledged that they are less culpable and their responsibility should differ accordingly.

Contact: Associate Professor Loretta Feris, [email protected]

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“Environment Law is one

key vehicle for facilitating true

climate change mitigation and

adaptation.”

Alexander (Sandy) Paterson

INSTITUTE OF MARINE & ENVIRONMENTAL LAWwww.law.uct.ac.za/research/groups/imel/about

The Institute of Marine and Environmental Law (IMEL) undertakes legal research into a wide range of environmental and governance issues affecting land or sea; it also provides research-led teaching in marine and environmental law subjects at postgraduate and undergraduate levels, and supervises research students taking doctoral and master’s degrees. The staff of IMEL are engaged in a variety of research projects, many of which focus on the legal implications of climate change in national, regional and international contexts. They also offer consultancy services in marine and environmental law, with a particular emphasis on Africa.

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ACDI | University of Cape Town The Marine Research Institute

Nansen-Tutu Marine Environmental Research Centre

Hosted by Ma-Re, The Nansen–Tutu Centre is named after two Nobel Peace Laureates – Desmond Tutu and Fridtjof Nansen – passionately concerned about our environment. The Centre aims to serve Africa through advancing knowledge of the marine environment and climate system. Its overall goal is to improve the capacity to observe, understand and predict marine ecosystem variability on timescales from days to decades in support of scientific and societal needs including fisheries, coastal management, maritime security, recreation and tourism. To this end, one of the core activities at the Centre focuses on education and exchange of young researchers and students from different cultures and countries through the Nansen-Tutu Scholarship Programme.

Contact: Professor Frank Shillington, [email protected] and Emlyn

Balarin, [email protected]

Ma-Re BASICS (Marine Research in the Benguela and Agulhas Sys-tems for supporting Interdisciplinary Climate-change Science)

This project, which is funded through the UCT Vice Chancellor’s Strategic Fund, includes several partner institutions, and has a strong inter-disciplinary focus. The primary focus of the project is at the level of the southern African sub-region, including the oceans and the atmosphere, where physical and ecological modelling studies at a range of scales are using a variety of indica-tors to help understand, track and ultimately predict the effects of climate change. A complementary focus at the level of the Benguela large marine ecosystem will use a variety of process- and case-studies to understand the effects of climate variability on the marine environment, the living organisms in the sea and the human communities that use and depend on marine resourc-es. A number of postgraduate students are funded through this programme.

Contact: Professor John Field, [email protected]

to understand and deal with global change in

Africa. There is a worldwide need to understand,

meteorological services do for the weather.” Professor John Field

THE MARINE RESEARCH INSTITUTEma-re.uct.ac.za

“Africa juts into the Indian, South Atlantic and Southern Oceans with cool and warm oceans juxtaposed, giving rise to unique marine and land ecosystems with high biodiversity, rich fisheries and superb natural resources. It is therefore important that we develop the capacity for understanding and predicting the state of the ocean and its ecosystems as the meteorological services do for the weather.”

From its inception in 2006, the Marine Research (Ma-Re) Institute has been an interdisciplinary research centre overseeing the wide range of marine research conducted across departments and faculties at the University of Cape Town (UCT), including the Departments of Oceanography, Zoology and Botany, the Marine Biology Research Centre and the Research Diving Unit. The Ma-Re Institute’s main focus is on global change, with particular attention to climate change and variability. The key research themes include: atmosphere and climate, oceanography, social anthropology, coastal zone management, ecosystem approach to fisheries, marine biodiversity, marine biogeochemistry, historical studies, marine biotechnology, marine geosciences, resource economics, and marine engineering. The Institute further focuses on capacity building and skills development, it fosters inter-disciplinary marine research projects and works to form links with other bodies in the region and overseas.

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ACDI | University of Cape Town Percy FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology

Prediction and Consequences of Climate-induced Species Losses from Hot Ecosystems

This project aims to develop a predictive framework for the consequences of climate change for birds in arid and semi-arid areas, based on a mechanistic understanding of the link between high temperatures and organismal performance. By integrating field-based behavioural data with laboratory and field-based physiological data, the research will be able to determine the relative vulnerability of species to rising temperatures, and develop an understanding of which morphological, physiological and ecological species traits are associated with high vulnerability. Using past climate data and future climate-change scenarios, these site-specific data on species’ vulnerabilities will be extrapolated to the landscape scale using GIS techniques, ultimately generating predictions of the impacts of climate change on ecological communities. The Fitz’s ‘Hot Birds’ field research is centred on southern Africa’s Kalahari region, but the project has already spearheaded parallel nodes in the desert of Western Australia (through the University of Western Australia) and the south-western United States (University of New Mexico).

Contact: Professor Phil Hockey, [email protected]

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Fynbos Endemic Birds: Vulnerability and Adaptation to Land Use and Climate Change

Starting in early 2008, this project forms part of the Fitz’s Climate Vulnerability and Adaptation Programme, run in conjunction with the Climate Change and BioAdaptation Division of the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI). The project explores how species on the edge of the continent and along urban edges are being squeezed by climate change, rampant urbaniza-tion, and associated ecological changes such as biological invasions and novel predators. The project team works at sites in the Cape Peninsula, Kogelberg Biosphere Reserve, Hottentots Holland Mountains and Langeberg Mountains. The project will help make fine-scale, modelling of climate and range shifts, on which conservation planning will be increasingly based, more accurate, more robust and more reliable for the species of this very special biodiversity hotspot.

Contact: Dr Phoebe Barnard, [email protected]

PERCY FITZPATRICK INSTITUTE OF AFRICAN ORNITHOLOGYwww.fitzpatrick.uct.ac.za

“Climate change does not operate in isolation, but in concert with other global change drivers, such as land-use change, biotic invasion and desertification. These have already significantly altered southern African ecosystems, and the ways in which they compound the impacts of climate change are complex and often difficult to predict in detail”

The Percy FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology at the University of Cape Town (UCT), known as the ‘Fitz’ and now a National Centre of Excellence in Science and Technology, was established in 1960. The Institute promotes and undertakes scientific studies involving birds that contribute to the maintenance of biological diversity and the sustained use of biological resources. The Institute’s exceptional international reputation is matched by its development into the largest centre for ornithological research in both Africa and the Southern Hemisphere. The Niven Library, which is housed at the Institute, contains what is arguably the most comprehensive collection of Afrotropical ornithological literature in the world.

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1 Benchmarks For the Future: Long-term Vegetation Change Along A 1,500 km Aridity Gradient in South Africa Derived From Palaeoecology and Historical Ecology

This research uses an innovative combination of approaches incorporating analyses of historical climate and land use data, repeat photography, palaeoecology and long-term ecological monitoring to assess changes in the vegetation over the last millennium along a 1,500 km transect from Namaqualand in the west to the former Transkei region in the east. Data collected will help to establish pre-colonial benchmark conditions of the vegetation of the savanna, grassland, nama-karoo, succulent karoo and fynbos biomes. Such long term vegetation records will help in evaluating the resilience of the different biomes to known climatic and anthropogenic perturbations that have occurred in historical and palaeoecological time. Insights from this analysis will also help in the evaluation of future climate change scenarios for the sub-region, with important implications for policy development and implementation. The project will also inform current conservation practices, ecosystem management and protected area networks and, more generally, to create an understanding of land degradation and ecosystem change that is important for a wide range of cross-cutting policies concerned with energy provision, poverty reduction, rural development and food provision.

Contact: Associate Professor Lindsey Gillson, [email protected]

Plant Conservation Unit

“Today’s biodiverse

landscapes are the

product of ongoing

processes of climatic

change, distur-

bance and human

management. These

processes interact

over long timescales,

and looking to the

past can give us the

key to understanding

what might happen

in the future.”

Associate Professor Lindsey Gillson

PLANT CONSERVATION UNITwww.pcu.uct.ac.za

The Plant Conservation Unit (PCU), based in the University of Cape Town’s (UCT’s) Botany Department, works to enhance the ecological understanding and conservation status of Africa’s biomes. The PCU incorporates information from a range of disciplines, including bio-diversity and restoration ecology, dryland degradation, environmental history and palaeoecology. In additional to fundamental research, the PCU also emphasises research that will guide and inform its curriculum and outreach programmes. PCU research foci includes: land use and sustainable development; disturbance and restoration ecology; landscape history and palaeoecology; and biodiversity, conservation and management.

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Through the Climate Change Education

& Awareness Programme, which

was an environmental science

to teachers in teaching the topic of climate change

and increasing awareness of learners about the

Dr Jonathan Clark

1 The Climate Change Education and Awareness Programme (CChEAP)

The SDU, in collaboration with the Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning, created a course for GET and FET teachers that consists of training material for the Climate Change Education and Awareness Programme (CChEAP). CChEAP has a dual purpose, firstly to support educators in the presentation of effective teaching and learning strategies which would enable learners to participate in problem-solving activities that lead towards equitable and sustainable energy utilisation, and secondly, to increase the awareness of learners about the cause and effect of climate change. The course provides teachers with key resources that can be used at a number of different levels in each of these learning areas. The programme includes: capacity-building and training for teachers; up to date source materials for the local environment, including audio-visual material, a teacher booklet, interactive task cards, posters and a dynamic power point presentation; and an integrated, interactive arts and technology package including music and hands-on activities.

Contact: Andrew Petersen, [email protected]

School Development Unit

SCHOOL DEVELOPMENT UNITwww.sdu.uct.ac.za/about/overview

The School Development Unit (SDU) aims to integrate the University of Cape Town’s research into the education sector. The focus of the SDU is on training teachers, promoting the development of superior learning materials and creating school-based development programmes, while putting into practice the latest educational research, supporting educators to establish innovative schools, while taking into account the challenges that afflict the learning environment of the twenty-first century. Research at the SDU focuses on the behavioural patterns of learners, students, teachers and other participants in the education system, within the overarching goal of influencing policy, strategy, and curriculum development. The research investigates theoretical frameworks, research instruments, data collection and processing.

“By integrating cutting-edge theory into the dynamic context of the modern classroom, the School Development Unit not only works to improve teaching practice and learner experience, but also engages NGOs, partner organisations, and government departments that form part of the wider context of South African education.”

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ACDI | University of Cape Town The Sustainable Enterprise & Emergent Change Research Group

The business community can play an

important role if it understands its

dependence on a conducive social and

ecological environment, and that more

committed business responses, not

palliatives, are required.”

Associate Professor: Ralph Hamann

1 Business and Climate Change Governance in Areas of Limited Statehood

This three-year collaborative research project is centred around the question, “Why and how business actors contribute to climate change governance in areas of limited statehood?” Governance is defined as institutionalised modes of social coordination to produce and implement collectively binding rules and/or to protect or provide collective goods. Climate change governance has to do with institutionalized modes of social coordination that can maintain the ‘public service’ provided by a stable climate (mitigation) and ensuring the cost-effective and fair socio-economic adaptation to unavoidable climatic changes (adaptation). In areas of limited statehood political institutions are unable or unwilling to develop on these governance issues. The research is focused on business actors because of the significant role they play in both mitigation and adaptation, but little is known about the motivations and processes of their response. The project is grounded in multi-disciplinary collaboration between researchers from the Graduate School of Business at the University of Cape Town and political science researchers from the Freie Universitat Berlin in Germany, and incorporates both the theoretical founda-tion through which the role of business in climate governance is analysed, and a number of studies that investigate mitigation and adaptation activities of business organisations across South Africa, Germany, Kenya and Zambia.

Contact: Associate Professor Ralph Hamann, [email protected]

THE SUSTAINABLE ENTERPRISE & EMERGENT CHANGE RESEARCH GROUPgsbblogs.uct.ac.za/seec

The Sustainable Enterprise and Emergent Change Research Group is located at the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business, and is focused on the contribution that organisations, especially business organisations, can make to sustainable development. Using theoretical frameworks associated with organisational change, governance and socio-ecological systems, its overarching research question is, “Why and how do business organisations respond to complex socio-ecological problems, and what are the impacts of these responses?” The group’s work is clustered around four thematic areas, namely: climate change governance, cross-sector collaboration, food security and human rights in extractive industries.

“The notion of sustainable enterprise suggests that business contributions can be important if decision-makers understand the interface between their organisations and society in a strategic and holistic manner. This interface is characterised by emergent change because of the complexity of socio-ecological systems and the many unprecedented challenges currently faced by companies and citizens.”

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Study with the ACDI

MASTER’S IN CLIMATE CHANGE & DEVELOPMENTGlobal climate change presents daunting and exciting challenges, especially for the developing world, where traditional routes to development are at odds with the need for a low carbon economy. At the same time, building resilience to climate change and variability is fundamental to sustainable development and prosperity. A multidiscipli-nary approach that integrates the biophysical, technological, socio-economic sciences and the humanities is required to successfully engage with the challenges of climate change. South Africa is well positioned to engage with these issues because of its status as a developing country with good technology and infrastructure, juxtaposed with less developed communities, and an economy in transition. This provides a microcosm of the developing world’s social, environmental, and economic development issues. This one-year taught Master’s course provides interdisciplinary training in climate change and sustainable development, with a purposeful focus on the issues of relevance to African development.

Course ContentFour compulsory core modules that cover earth system science, development and climate change economics, climate impacts and adaptation, as well as energy and climate change.Three elective modules, chosen from a range of topics such international climate law, sustainable urban systems, climate variability & prediction, and climate change & biodiversity, offering the opportunity to explore new areas or to look at climate and development through existing disciplinary backgrounds.A minor dissertation, based on a three-month research project.

Who Should Attend?Honours or four-year Bachelor graduates from across the spectrum of disciplines, who want to gain a broad understanding of the issues involved in climate change and sustainable development from an African and developing world perspective. The programme will equip its graduates for employment in government, local authori-ties, businesses with a sustainability agenda, consultancies, NGOs and international development organisations. It is aimed at both recent graduates and those with several years’ experience who wish to engage with these pressing issues within the context of their vocations.For more information, please visit www.acdi.uct.ac.za or contact the programme convenor, via e-mail [email protected].

www.acdi.uct.ac.za


www.uct.ac.za

Publication designed by Gillian Benjamin ([email protected]).

ACDI | AFRICAN CLIMATE &DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE

AN AFRICAN PERSPECTIVE ON CLIMATE CHANGEAddressing the twin challenges of development and climate change for the continent’s people and environment.

CONTRIBUTING TO SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENTNew thinking on an African development model that builds resilience to climate change, improves well-being and creates opportunities, but does not rely on fossil fuels.

A MULTI-DISCIPLINARY APPROACHDrawing on research expertise from across the University of Cape Town, to help develop innovative, sustainable solutions to challenges in governance, energy, food and water security, urban growth and ecosystem services, among others.

CONTACT

Professor Mark NewACDI Director and Pro Vice-Chancellor (Climate Change)Tel: +27 21 650 2920/5598Fax: +27 21 650 3783Email: [email protected]: www.acdi.uct.ac.zaAddress: Geological Sciences Building, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, South Africa, 7701


Documents

ACDI - Ningapi.ning.com/.../ACDIBookletforWeb.pdfIn addition to cross university activities, the ACDI supports innovative research in partnership with government, business and civil