On Thursday 22nd November 2018, SSN will host a stakeholder meeting to pilot an innovative process we are developing around translating climate risks into investments and resilience. Using the recent wild fires in the Southern Cape as a defined climate risk, we will test a methodology that crowds in private and public sector actors to collectively identify climate resilience and adaptation interventions that also make good business sense, and which can be made fundable through blended finance, off the back of mutually determined outcomes. The purpose of the workshop is to refine the methodology, and align the overall proposition with private sector interests.
With funding from GIZ, SSN will facilitate a trial run of an approach, developed by SSN under the auspices of, and with support from colleagues on, the Finance Working Group of the IKI NDC Cluster. For this ‘dry-run’ SSN will convene affected land owners, the insurance sector, government (local and provincial), development (including climate) financiers, researchers, and climate practitioners. This group will provide insights into elements of the risk, options for tackling these, and what finance mechanisms may be possible to address the different elements. Such a process could generate a pipeline of interventions that can be further developed and refined—and ultimately financed.
The background to this work is the need for large scale re-directing of financial flows to address climate vulnerability, specifically the (largely untested) assumption within the climate sector that private sector funding can be leveraged off public (and climate) finance investment in resilience. South Africa is already experiencing significant climate impacts, such as rising temperatures and changing rainfall patterns, putting at risk economic, social and ecological systems. The 2017 and 2018 fires in the Garden Route Municipality are immediate examples. Extreme temperatures, high winds and alien plant infestation created the ideal conditions for destructive wildfires, which caused loss of life and significant damage and loss. This pattern is likely to continue unless large-scale changes are made financially viable.