The City of Cape Town and the C40 City Finance Facility (CFF) recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding, which starts the journey for the City to receive technical assistance to explore its two awarded projects that have distinct focuses. One project aims to develop climate change adaptation projects into bankable investment proposals and the other aims to develop plans to achieve a Carbon Neutral City by 2050.
The CFF assists cities by providing technical assistance to develop climate change mitigation and adaptation projects into bankable investment proposals.
In April 2021, the CFF embarked on its third phase of calling on cities to apply to access the technical assistance they offer. More than 60 cities around the world applied, and Cape Town was the only city that was successfully awarded assistance for two projects.
This initiative is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, the Government of the United Kingdom and the Agence Française de Development (AFD), and is implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH together with the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group.
The agreements between the CFF and the City have recently been finalised, and the projects will now commence for a period of approximately two years.
PROJECT 1: THE CITY'S LIVEABLE URBAN WATERWAY AND GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE PROGRAMMES
The City will be receiving a donation of technical assistance to the value of about R10 million from CFF to support its Liveable Urban Waterway and Green Infrastructure Programmes. The programmes are led by the Water and Sanitation and Spatial Planning and Environment Directorates respectively, and are implemented in collaboration with various other City Directorates.
A number of exciting waterway rehabilitation projects have commenced in the Sand River catchment, and the City aims to learn from these and to scale this out to other waterways and catchments.
The technical assistance project will develop a business case and masterplan for implementing nature-based solutions, green infrastructure and waterway rehabilitation projects in two additional catchments (Diep River South and Zeekoe), and will explore how working with nature and communities can contribute not just to climate adaptation, but could unlock many other co-benefits too. The technical assistance will also include the appointment of a Senior Project Advisor, who will work closely with the project team.
'We are very excited to be partnering with CFF over the next two years to develop a green infrastructure investment case to help us become more resilient to floods and a changing climate, and enhance the health of our catchments in Cape Town. We are looking forward to the technical assistance and are hoping that the learnings and findings that will be explored during this period, will help us on this journey to become a Water Sensitive City,' said Mayoral Committee Member for Water and Sanitation Councillor Zahid Badroodien.
'Cape Town is a growing city and we have many waterbodies and waterways that need to be protected within our metro. I therefore look forward to seeing how the technical assistance we will be receiving from CFF will assist us with various waterway rehabilitation projects. I believe we will gain the necessary insight that will give us some solid planning tools to ensure that we enhance and improve our watercourses throughout Cape Town', said the City's Deputy Mayor and Mayoral Committee Member for Spatial Planning and Environment, Alderman Eddie Andrews.
PROJECT 2: WORKING TOWARDS BECOMING A CARBON NEUTRAL CITY BY 2050
The second project is being implemented by the Energy Directorate, and will assist in further developing plans to achieve a Carbon Neutral City by 2050 and derive the multiple financial, economic, social and environmental benefits thereof.
At least 30 MW of renewable generation capacity needs to be developed with a minimum 18% reduction in energy use (from a 2020 baseline) by 2030 to be carbon neutral in the City building portfolio. To achieve this, the City is pursuing an energy efficiency programme as well as renewable energy generation through rooftop and ground-mounted PV. The proposed renewable energy generation project aims to design, build, operate and maintain a utility-scale ground-mounted solar PV generation plant on a site under investigation in Paardevlei outside Somerset West.
'The technical assistance, provided by the CFF, will include the appointment of a Senior Project Advisor to support the project team and their efforts to undertake a technical feasibility study and capacity strengthening in the fields of project development and the structuring of solar PV projects. The City is keen to incorporate new and enhanced techniques, approaches and learnings that arise from this partnership,' said the City's Mayoral Committee Member for Energy, Councillor Beverley van Reenen.
Furthermore, through the support of the CFF, the City of Cape Town's achievement of these commitments will place it at the forefront of global trends for more climate resilient urban development and positively contribute to commitments to limit global temperature increases to 1.5°C, as required by the Paris Agreement.
Source: City Of Cape Town