Angela van der Berg

This chapter examines the climate change mitigation law and policy of five major developing countries: Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa (i.e., the BRICS). It will first analyze the case of Brazil, then India, China, Russia, and lastly South Africa. The chapter explores the main causes of Brazil’s contribution to global climate change (namely deforestation, cattle ranching, agricultural expansion, and energy production). It then offers mitigation strategies for the case of India and makes the case for investing in cities, solar energy, hydropower, and electric vehicles. The chapter then explores China’s position in the mitigation of climate change by analyzing key policies such as carbon pricing, energy efficiency, renewable energy, and fossil fuels. It then turns to Russia to examine its domestic policies to reduce carbon emissions. Lastly, it examines South Africa’s climate change mitigation regime.

Drawing on earlier scholarly works that deal with the legally relevant interface between local government and the constitutional environmental duties of the state, this case comment ventures into an outline of the factual background and judgment in RA Le sueur v Ethekwini Municipality 2013 JDR 0178 (KZP) as far as it concerns the execution of original and assigned municipal powers regarding the conservation of natural resources and the protection of biodiversity. The authors further share their observations on what the facts and the judgment of this case may mean from the perspectives of the objectives of South African environmental law and the entire state's constitutional duty towards the environment.

Natural disaster losses and people’s exposure to natural hazards are increasing
all over the world. Human-induced climate change is likely to result in a
continuing upward trend in the occurrence of natural disasters. Recent studies
indicate that flooding is the most frequently occurring natural disaster. In the
urban context, flooding impacts more people than any other type of natural
disaster. In South Africa specifically, climate change has resulted in infrequent
but heavy rains and flash floods punctuating the normally arid and semi-arid
conditions. Between 2011 and 2018 the country experienced severe flash
flooding in several of its urban areas. The occurrence and severity of flooding
seems to have increased, resulting in damage to infrastructure, agriculture,
property and human health and well-being. South Africa boasts an extensive
legal framework for disaster management including laws and policy on other
matters related to disaster risk reduction. Nevertheless, the extent to which
government, specifically municipalities, are legally bound to prevent damage
caused by natural disasters, especially in the event of flooding, remains unclear.
The uncertainty seems to be exacerbated by a lack of clarity in legislation and
by contrasting judicial views. In light of this uncertainty, this paper aims to
critically determine the extent to which South African law places a duty on
municipalities to prevent flood damage. The paper pays specific attention to
South Africa’s disaster management legislation, read with the recently decided
cases of Abbott v Overstrand Municipality (2016) and Propshaft Master (Pty)
Ltd and Others v Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality (2017).
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Climate adaptation planning in pursuit of resilient and sustainable societies has become a focal point in urban policy. Climate adaptation planning is generally regarded as separate from traditional urban planning practices. Globally and in Europe, however, cities are increasingly integrating climate adaptation planning into their traditional urban planning instruments and processes. Recent research indicates that the scope of such integration is at varying stages. The City of Rotterdam (Netherlands) and the City of Antwerp (Belgium) have been identified as two European cities that face similar climate impacts and risks given their proximity to a large river delta. Both cities aim to integrate climate adaptation into their respective urban planning policies, but the scope of their integration differs. This paper critically analyses the urban planning policies of these two cities to distil key lessons learnt that cities with similar climate impacts and approaches to urban planning may potentially face in integrating climate adaptation planning into urban planning policies. The paper finds that identifying and evaluating the synergies, co-benefits or trade-offs of adaptation measures is a key challenge to integrating climate adaptation into urban planning policy. It is a potential stumbling block for long-term sustainable development and climate resilience.

For the first time in history, the majority of the world's population is urban. The world reached its urban tipping point at the same time as the Earth entered into a new geological epoch, referred to as the Anthropocene. Rapid urbanization and the expansion of cities is a key feature of the Anthropocene. Currently, cities cover 2% of the surface of the planet, yet they consume more than 75% of Earth's resources. It is estimated that by 2050, 68% of the world's 9.8 billion people will live in urban areas. Meaningful and urgent action is required to ensure that urbanization is harnessed towards a more sustainable and balanced urban development trajectory. While there are many legal and governance approaches to promoting sustainability within cities, it is increasingly argued that planning law has a specific role to play in ensuring the balanced environmental, social, and economic development of urban areas. The purpose of this chapter is to critically consider whether planning law can in fact promote urban sustainability in the Anthropocene. Specific emphasis is placed on the planning law framework in the South African context. The chapter concludes with some lessons learnt and some considerations for the role of planning law for promoting urban sustainability in the Anthropocene.

Socially created vulnerabilities are largely ignored in the hazards and disaster literature because they are so difficult to measure and quantify. Social vulnerability is partially a product of social inequities - those social factors and forces that create the susceptibility of various groups to harm, and in turn affect their ability to respond, and bounce back (resilience) after the disaster. But it is more than that. Social vulnerability involves the basic provision of health care, the liveability of places, overall indicators of quality of life, and accessibility to lifelines (goods, services, emergency response personnel), capital, and political representation.

The Environmental Law Association (ELA) held its annual conference at Salt Rock, KwaZulu-Natal in July. Approximately 80 people attended the event that was partially sponsored by publishers Juta and LexisNexis. The aim of the conference was to provide a platform for the discussion of a number of proposed legislative amendments, recent court decisions, policy changes, administrative procedures and new developments on international and regional level that may have potential implications for the direction and future of environmental law development and decision-making. These issues were addressed by an array of presenters representative of the academic fraternity and legal practice across South Africa.

Cities have long been the pioneers of and driving force behind the development and evolution of human societies. The significance of cities as drivers of the sustainable development agenda received its strongest recognition to date with the adoption of, amongst others, the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in 2015, and the UN Habitat III Declaration (the New Urban Agenda) in 2016. These international policy instruments frame the context in terms of which urban sustainability, or sustainable cities, must be pursued across the globe. Of the many fields of law that are applicable to cities, several scholars and research groups increasingly maintain that planning law and policy has a specific role to play in addressing the challenges that cities face, and in guiding them towards a more sustainable development trajectory. Notably, South Africa’s planning law system has recently been transformed by a new planning law framework. In contrast with the pre-1994 legislation, the count...

It is anticipated that the occurrence and intensity of disasters will increase globally and in South Africa where typical disasters include droughts, floods, extreme hailstorms, gales, fires and earthquakes, as well as sinkholes arising from mining activity in dolomitic areas. Disasters such as these result in human suffering and damage to the resources and infrastructure on which South Africans rely for their survival and the maintenance of their quality of life. Section 24 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 affords to everyone the right to an environment that is not harmful to his or her health and well-being. It may be argued that a person's sense of environmental security in relation to the potential risks and dangers of disaster falls within the scope of the protection provided by section 24. The responsibility to intervene for the protection of the interests inherent in the constitutional environmental right lies with the government of South Africa. ...