Cape Town Looks for Social Benefits in Adapting to Climate Change

A recent workshop in Cape Town, South Africa pointed to the social benefits that could result from efforts to adapt to climate change. “The city is currently witnessing sea-level rises in highly desired and expensive residential neighbourhoods,” the non-profit Future Cape Town reports. “Simultaneously, terrestrial flooding takes place in Cape Town’s poorest neighbourhoods; most of the regions affected are home to informal settlements. When looking to address the impacts of climate change through policy, who should be given the first priority?” Climate change will affect the city’s social dynamics as well as its economy, FCT states, and “despite the sensitive nature of climate adaptation in a still racially charged environment, or perhaps because of it, Cape Town’s government must act.”