1. The document summarizes a case study of developing a climate adaptation plan for Bergrivier municipality in South Africa through a collaborative process between multiple levels of government and stakeholders. 2. A key opportunity was aligning the municipal adaptation plan with national and provincial climate policies to mainstream adaptation into local development planning. 3. An iterative process of co-production between provincial government, municipal leaders, scientists, and local practitioners built adaptive capacity across groups and supported the development of a climate adaptation plan integrated into the municipal development plan.

1. Opportunities for municipal climate adaptation:
aligning local adaptation plans with provincial and
national policy in South Africa
Gina Ziervogel, Penny Price and Emma Archer
gina@csag.uct.ac.za
Department of Environmental and Geographical Science and African Climate & Development Initiative,
University of Cape Town

2. Overview
• Opportunities and enablers of municipal scale adaptation
governance
• Importance of co-production for building adaptive capacity
across scale
• Case study: Development of Bergrivier municipality climate
adaptation plan

3. Opportunities for municipal climate
change governance
• Growing literature on institutional barriers to adaptation
governance
• Important to understand opportunities and enablers
“factors that make it easier to plan and implement adaptation actions,
that expand adaptation options, or that provide ancillary co-benefits”
Klein et al. (2014: 907)
• Local government key to supporting opportunities
• Provide resource/change planning (Biesbroek et al. 2013; Measham et al.
2011)
• Access to multiple stakeholders
• Connects to national and international (Pasquini et al. 2014; Bulkeley 2010)

4. Building adaptive capacity through co-
production
• Nature of co-production
• Experts from science, policy, practice and local communities (Bulkeley
2006)
• Importance of developing contextually relevant strategies (Corburn
2009)
• Co-production as part of adaptation
• Focus on process and capacity critical given slow uptake of
adaptation implementation (Kates et al. 2012; Tompkins et al 2010)
• Reflexive engagement between research and practice (Patel et al.
2015)
• Social capital is needed to draw on multiple knowledges and work
collectively (Armitage et al. 2011)

5. Western Cape Government
Climate Change Municipal Support Programme
• Support for local & district municipalities to development & implement
climate adaptation plans
• New programme, 1st
year = 4 Municipalities
• Partnerships
• Bergrivier councillors and officials
• Local community / NGO representation
• CSIR
• CSAG
• ACDI

6. Process: Bergrivier municipality
• Formal solicitation of interest for involvement
• Presentation to mayoral committee to achieve buy-in
• 3 in-situ workshops
• Draft adaptation plan
• Initial draft by Provincial official
• Input from scientists
• Finalisation by Bergrivier officials
• Integration of climate change adaptation plan into IDP

7. Workshop 1 (Oct 2012) Workshop 2 (Nov 2012) Workshop 3 (Jan 2013)
Current vulnerability Climate change
vulnerability (impacts
and prioritisation)
Developing adaptation
options
Key climatic events in
Bergrivier
Key sectors and
activities
High
temp Flood
Erratic
rainfal
l
Heavy
winds
Infrastructure -
Roads
L M L L
Infrastructure -
Structures /
buildings
M L L M
Infrastructure -
Low income
housing
M H L M
Infrastructure -
Storm water
L H H M
Service delivery -
Water
M M L L
Service delivery -
Electricity
M M L M

8. UCT ACDI Interdisciplinary process
• A diverse group of practitioners and academics
• A facilitated process of investigation into climate and development
in Bergrivier over 2 years

10. 1: Policy opportunity - Mainstreaming climate
adaptation into development planning
National Climate Change Response Policy (2011)
Clearly outlines the
need for local
government to
integrate climate
change
considerations and
constraints into
municipal master
planning, e.g. IDP
Western Cape Climate Change Response Strategy
Climate Adaptation
Work Group reports on
mainstreaming
adaptation into
municipal planning and
operations
Climate Change
Municipal Support
Programme reported
on under Annual
Performance Plan
Bergrivier Municipality
Integrated Development Plan (2013)
Climate Change
Adaptation Plan
integrated into
IDP
Bergrivier Municipality Climate
Change Adaptation Plan (2014)
Focus areas: Mainstreaming climate
change governance into municipal
governance; Climate resilient low cost
housing; Stormwater; Conservation of
natural resources (focus on clearing
alien invasive vegetation); Agriculture

11. 2: Policy opportunity – Flexibility of process
• Province’s measurable outcome:
• “Climate adaptation mainstreamed into local level municipal
planning and operations”
• Iterative feedback between the provincial and local levels
• Limited resources
Source: //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flexibility; http://www.area15.es/wp-content/uploads/bombilla-mundo.jpg

12. 3: Capacity opportunity – Collaborative and
entrepreneurial government leaders
• Public managers critical role in ‘catalysing’ knowledge
production and providing leadership (Maiello et al. 2013;
Termeer et al. 2012)
• Collaborative leadership
• Municipal “champion”’s limited knowledge of climate change
adaptation
• Entrepreneurial leadership
• Provincial “champion” with strong social capital

13. 4: Capacity opportunity – Diverse
group of stakeholders
PROVINCIAL
GOVERNMENT
MUNICIPAL
GOVERNMENT
SCIENTISTS
LOCAL
PRACTITIONERS

14. Conclusion: Supporting co-production
to build adaptive capacity
• Importance of leveraging opportunities
• Cross scalar policy alignment
• Capacity
• Aligned with development priorities
• Co-production
• Supported because of social capital
• Built adaptive capacity across groups
• About a process not a destination

15. Paper under review with Environment and Urbanization.
Please contact me for a copy.
Gina@csag.uct.ac.za
@GinaZiervogel