South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa has signed the Climate Change Bill into law, which outlines a national climate change response, including mitigation and adaptation measures, the Presidency said in a statement issued on Tuesday.
The new law specifies how provinces and municipalities will participate in climate change mitigation efforts, the statement said.
The law aims to strengthen coordination between national sector departments, as well as provide policy setting and decision-making to enable South Africa to meet its commitments in the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement.
The statement explained that the National Determined Contribution is a set of commitments made by South Africa under the Paris Agreement to reduce greenhouse emissions as part of climate change mitigation efforts.
Greenhouse gas emissions
Africa's most industrialised economy is one of over 190 members of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change who are parties to the eight-year-old Paris Agreement signed in 2016.
The climate change law also sets out to improve South Africa's ability and capacity over time to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and build climate resilience, while reducing the risk of job losses, and creating opportunities for new jobs in the emerging green economy.
The country's mitigation measures are a response to climate change impacts that are increasingly experienced in different sectors, including water resources, agriculture and food production, forestry as well as human health, it said.
"These impacts will disproportionately affect poor communities and vulnerable groups and could affect South Africa's ability to meet its development and economic growth goals, including job creation and poverty reduction," it said.
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