Climate Change Act, 2024 (Act No. 22 of 2024)Chapter 4 : National Adaptation to Impacts of Climate Change21. National Adaptation Strategy and Plan |
| (1) | Climate change adaptation within the Republic must be managed in a coherent and coordinated manner and in accordance with a National Adaptation Strategy and Plan. |
| (2) | The Minister must, in consultation with the Ministers responsible for the functions listed in Schedule 2, develop and publish a National Adaptation Strategy and Plan by notice in the Gazette within two years of the coming into operation of this Act. |
| (3) | The Minister must review and amend the National Adaptation Strategy and Plan at a five-yearly interval to take into account— |
| (a) | monitoring and evaluation results; |
| (b) | technological advances; |
| (c) | the best available science, evidence or information; or |
| (d) | the Republic’s international commitments and obligations. |
| (4) | The purpose of the National Adaptation Strategy and Plan is to— |
| (a) | achieve a reduction in the vulnerability of society, the economy and the environment to the effects of climate change, strengthen the resilience of the socio-economic and environmental system and enhance the adaptive capacity of society, the environment and economy to the impacts of climate change; |
| (b) | reduce the risk and vulnerabilities from current and future climate scenarios; |
| (c) | achieve the national adaptation objectives contemplated in section 19; |
| (d) | provide a strategic and policy directive for adaptation to the impacts of climate change; and |
| (e) | provide an integrated and coordinated approach to the management of adaptation measures in response to the impacts of climate change by organs of state in all spheres of government, and where relevant it must also include non-governmental organisations, the private sector and local communities. |
| (5) | The National Adaptation Strategy and Plan must include— |
| (a) | the national adaptation objectives contemplated in section 19; |
| (b) | a consideration of the Republic’s climate change scenarios as informed by the adaptation scenarios contemplated in section 20; |
| (c) | an assessment of the Republic’s vulnerability to climate change and related risks at sectoral, cross-sectoral and geographic levels, including a consideration of relevant disaster risk assessments in terms of the Disaster Management Act; |
| (d) | available adaptation response options to reduce identified vulnerabilities by building adaptive capacity and resilience, in the context of actual or anticipated social, economic and environmental costs; and |
| (e) | a plan that details the implementation of adaptation responses informed by the objectives and indicators contemplated in section 19. |