Earthshot Week & our Aim to be Net Zero Carbon by 2050
The Western Cape Government welcomed Earthshot Week 2024 to our province. This was the first time this illustrious event was held in South Africa and on the African continent. Earthshot Week 2024, which officially began on Monday, 4 November, concluded with the fourth annual Earthshot Prize Awards ceremony, on Wednesday 6 November.
“As a government that has aligned its priorities around making the Western Cape more climate change resilient, it was a great honour for the Western Cape and Cape Town to host Earthshot Week 2024,” said Premier Alan Winde.
The Premier continued, “This allowed us a vital opportunity to highlight how across our government, along with our partners, we are constantly planning for the future by ensuring we put the necessary measures in place to mitigate the impact of climate change. As a province that is particularly vulnerable to the effects of this growing crisis, we welcome any platform where we can learn from other countries and regions, as well as showcase what we and other African role players are doing to tackle this issue. We have learned hard lessons from multiple natural disasters that hit the Western Cape in recent years, and we look forward to engaging with individuals, among them innovators, entrepreneurs and academics, to better understand how we can improve our efforts to address the climate crisis.”
Earthshot Week was founded by His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales, Prince William, in 2020 and brings together experts, entrepreneurs, investors – among others - from across the world to enhance global climate action.
“As proud as we are that we have steadily built up a world-class disaster response system – so crucially important to manage the effects of climate change - we must also further entrench our climate change policies and actions to unlock solutions to urgently tackle this issue,” Premier Winde concluded.
For more information on the Earthshot Prize, please visit www.earthshotprize.org
Under2 Coalition
As Co-Chair for Africa of the Under2 Coalition, Premier Winde will use this opportunity to drive and enhance the Western Cape’s climate change initiatives.
“We must do everything we can to reverse the impact of the climate crisis,” said the Premier at the Climate Week New York, which he attended in September. He added, “It was an honour to engage with other regions from across the world and to share what we are doing to address this crisis & learn about how we can do better to live in balance with our planet.”
This annual event brings together a range of delegates to discuss the urgent need for major systemic change to address vulnerabilities brought about by the climate crisis and its interconnected social and political injustices.
The Western Cape Government is steadily building up the province’s climate resilience through initiatives such as the Integrated Energy and Water Council and Energy Resilience programme, which seeks to balance our need to grow the economy to create many more jobs while also protecting our natural environment. “Collaboration and partnerships are key to this,” emphasised the Premier, “every single one of us is affected by the climate crisis and so we must work closer together.”
For more information, visit https://www.theclimategroup.org/under2-coalition
