8.2 Human Resources


An efficient and effective response to climate change will require all of us to change our behaviour, especially when it comes to the use of fossil fuels and energy usage in general. We will need to do things differently, we will need to use different technologies and we will need to be far more sensitive to, and vigilant of, the changes happening around us. This, in turn, implies the need for new areas of education, the need for new levels of awareness, the need to build new skills, knowledge and expertise. Also implied is the need to provide re-skilling for people whose livelihoods will be completely changed.

To meet this challenge, South Africa will –

  1. Ensure that climate change, and specifically the required response to climate change, is included in all relevant aspects of our formal education curricula in order to ensure that future generations are fully prepared for a rapidly changing planet and the transition to a low-carbon society and economy.

  2. Include Climate Change elements in the review of the National Skills Development Strategy and ensure that all Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETAs) integrate climate change in priority skills development programmes, in the formal, informal and non-formal sectors of the South African education system.

  3. Ensure that all government sectoral climate change response strategies and actions plans include sections on education, awareness and outreach and human resource development.

  4. Ensure that the building of knowledge and expertise in new and/or emerging economic sectors is considered in all tertiary education curricula and relevant formal and informal training.

  5. By 2012, design, develop and roll-out a climate change awareness campaign that raises the awareness of all South Africans to the challenge of climate change and the need for appropriate responses and choices at the level of the individual.

  6. By 2013, compile and publish a review of the jobs most threatened by climate change and climate change responses and provide a strategy on how these people may be shielded against potential job losses including, but not limited to, re-training and re-skilling programmes for redeployment in new and/or emerging sectors.

  7. Encourage tertiary institutions of learning to conduct climate change research and facilitate the development of a national monitoring, reporting and verification guidelines for land use practices and land use change.