Mayoral committee member Mally Mokoena, British Council director Shoba Ponnappa and director of environment planning and management, Flora Mokgohloa (Photo: Enoch Lehung, City of Johannesburg)

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Some of the photographs on exhibition (Photo: Enoch Lehung, City of Johannesburg) Mayoral committee member Mally Mokoena speaks at the launch of the Zero Carbon Cities Awareness campaign (Photo: Enoch Lehung, City of Johannesburg)

Zero Carbon Cities Awareness campaign launched Climate change is the single biggest threat to sustainable development, and the Zero Carbon Cities Awareness campaign is exploring ways to deal with the problem. February 14, 2006 By Thuli Ntuli MOTHER nature can be unpredictable - the weather can change from a beautiful, sunny day to a heavy storm in an hour. There are tsunamis, hurricanes, blizzards and floods, all of which can result in loss of lives and homes. To raise awareness of climate change and global warming, the City of Johannesburg, the British Council of South Africa and the University of the Witwatersrand launched a Zero Carbon Cities Awareness campaign in the Metro Centre in Braamfontein, on Monday, 13 February. It runs for a week, closing on Friday, 17 February. The campaign is aimed at raising awareness and educating communities about issues related to climate change, as this is the biggest threat to sustainable development. Members of the public have been invited to attend the seminars and to view the accompanying photographic exhibition. The photographs were taken by 10 photographers from Magnum Photographic Agency, who were commissioned to take pictures in 10 different countries to illustrate the effects of climate change. They also were commissioned to take pictures of possible solutions being implemented to reduce carbon emission. Research shows that the largest effects of climate change will be felt in the greatest land masses, namely in Africa, Asia and Latin America. According to Mally Mokoena, member of the mayoral committee for development planning and environment, even though this is a world problem, the developing world faces greater challenges than the developed world in terms of the effects of climate change and the capacity to respond to it. "And it is the poorest members of our community, those with the fewest resources to buy their way out of unhealthy environmental situations, that suffer the most," she said. Daily seminars throughout the week will focus on international and national developments on climate change. Issues such of energy efficiency, renewable energy, Ecocity and legislation dealing with climate change will be discussed. Ecocity is an international holistic programme dealing with poverty from a community, social and economic development level. Attending the launch were members of the mayoral committee, councillors and representatives from the British Council, including Dr Paul Toyne. On Tuesday, 14 February Professor Mary Scholes of Wits and an international speaker will discuss general climate change issues. On 15 February Toyne will concentrate on legislative and policy frameworks, international obligation and international developments in climate change. On 16 February Annie Sugrue of Ecocity will look at intervention and research. "It is our hope that our communities will take all the information shared over the next three days and use it to their advantage. And it is also my personal wish that we as South Africans and as Johannesburg will gain a lot from these national and international experts," Mokoena concluded. Permission to use web site material Publishers may use material from this site free of charge, as long as: Credit is given to either the "City of Johannesburg website (www.joburg.org.za)" or to "Johannesburg News Agency (www.joburg.org.za)"; If the article is used online, a link is provided to the original article on this website; The name of the article's author is acknowledged; The webmaster is informed of how and where the material is used (fill in this brief online form). Johannesburg News Agency is operated by BIG Media at 011-484-1400 Print this Page E-mail this article to a friend Help using Joburg.org.za