Inclusion of climate change strategies in municipal Integrated Development Plans: A case from seven municipalities in Limpopo Province, South Africa

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has made it clear that anthropogenic greenhouse gasses are the main cause of observed global warming that leads to climate change. Climate change is now a global reality. In the South African political set-up, local municipalities are the structures that are in direct contact with communities and they draw up Integrated Development Plans (IDPs), which are reviewed and upgraded annually. The article seeks to investigate the extent to which climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies are embedded IDPs in seven vulnerable municipalities in the Limpopo Province. The article conducted an in-depth content analysis of the IDPs of the seven municipalities and the results have revealed that these municipalities have not included adaptation and mitigation strategies adequately in their IDPs despite being the most vulnerable municipalities in the province. The article concludes that these municipalities have not as yet institutionalised climate change in their daily operations, planning and decision making. To this end, the paper recommends that local municipalities should include climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies in their IDPs.


Introduction and background
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2013): a large part of global warming is irreversible: from the point where emissions have dropped to zero, global temperature will remain almost constant for centuries at the elevated level reached by that time. (p. 6) Mukheibir and Ziervogel (2007:147) maintain that stakeholders should be engaged in order to identify vulnerable sectors and existing and potential climate change adaptation and mitigation initiatives. Climate change mitigation and adaptation have been the subject of discussion in many countries as the impact of climate change is experienced at the local level by communities. Thus, local governance systems are often 'closest' entities for planning and implementing both the adaptation and mitigation strategies suitable for a particular geographical and social context in which they are located (Pasquini, Cowling & Ziervogel 2013:225). Within the South African context, local governance refers to municipalities. The Municipal Systems Act (No. 32 of 2000), chapter 5, part 1, section 25, outlines that all municipalities are mandated to develop Integrated Development Plans (IDPs) (Department of Provincial and Local government 2000a). The IDP is the main planning document for any local municipality in the country. Therefore, the vulnerability of community from climate change depends on the policies and frameworks that the local municipality puts in place through the IDP. This article has utilised content analysis as a research methodology in an attempt to do an in-depth analysis of the content of IDPs for Limpopo's seven most vulnerable municipalities in terms of climate change. The article examines the inclusion of climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies in the IDPs. The work is anchored on the principle that it is the responsibility of local municipalities to protect, assist and guide communities on how to adapt and mitigate the effects of climate change on their livelihood and sustainable development. Laukkonen et al. (2009) point out that: the vulnerability of individuals and communities to climate change impact is not simply determined by the location of their settlements, but also how these settlements are serviced, how effective and capable their local governments are and to what extend communities are able to cope with climate change impact. (p. 287) A sole objective was set for investigation as: to determine the extent of the inclusion of climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies in the IDP of the seven vulnerable municipalities in The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has made it clear that anthropogenic greenhouse gasses are the main cause of observed global warming that leads to climate change. Climate change is now a global reality. In the South African political set-up, local municipalities are the structures that are in direct contact with communities and they draw up Integrated Development Plans (IDPs), which are reviewed and upgraded annually. The article seeks to investigate the extent to which climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies are embedded IDPs in seven vulnerable municipalities in the Limpopo Province. The article conducted an in-depth content analysis of the IDPs of the seven municipalities and the results have revealed that these municipalities have not included adaptation and mitigation strategies adequately in their IDPs despite being the most vulnerable municipalities in the province. The article concludes that these municipalities have not as yet institutionalised climate change in their daily operations, planning and decision making. To this end, the paper recommends that local municipalities should include climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies in their IDPs.

Research methodology and theoretical framework
This article has used an in-depth content analysis of the IDPs for Limpopo's seven most vulnerable municipalities in terms of climate change. The author did a page by page analysis of the 2013/2014 IDPs of the following vulnerable municipalities: Greater Giyani, Ephraim Mogale, Greater Letaba, Thulamela, Aganang, Fetakgomo and Elias Motsoaledi. Welman, Kruger and Mitchell (2005:221) define content analysis as 'a qualitative analysis of qualitative data'. The basic technique involves counting the frequencies and sequencing of particular words, phrases and concepts in order to identify keywords and themes. Babbie and Mouton (2012) define the same concept as: [a] research method which examines words or phrases within a wide range of texts (IDPs in this case) including books, book chapters, essays, interviews, speeches and informal conversations. By examining the presence of repetition of certain words and phrases in these texts, a researcher is able to make inferences about the philosophical assumptions of a writer, a written piece, the audience to which the piece was written and even the culture and the time in which the text is embedded. (p. 491) The South African Local Government Association Let's Respond Guide and Toolkit (Department of Environmental Affairs 2012) and Municipal Adaptation Plans were utilised as rich sources of information. The next section discusses South Africa's participation in climate change arena internationally and also the national efforts made by the government in as far as climate change is concerned including the legislative frameworks for climate change in South Africa. This article's theoretical framework is based on three concepts, namely the vulnerability of municipalities towards climate change, the adaptive capacity of communities to the impact of climate change and the mitigation strategies which should be included in the municipal IDPs. It is through the IDP that a municipality plans and budgets for climate change impact. Vulnerability is identified as a core concept in disaster risk reduction, livelihood and the quest for poverty eradication (Miller et al. 2010:11). The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2007:6) defines vulnerability as the degree to which geophysical, biological and socio-economic systems are susceptible to and unable to cope with the adverse impact of climate change.
According to Kasperson and Dow (2001), the world has been experiencing: a worsening trend of human suffering and economic losses from natural disasters over the past several decades. In the last 40 years, the number of 'great disasters' has increased by factor of four whilst economic losses have increased by a factor of 10. The significance of these events to the social vulnerability of exposed human populations is of special concern. (p. 147) In addition, Laukkonen et al. (2009:287) purport that the vulnerability of individuals and communities to climate change impact is not simply determined by the location of their settlements but also how these settlements are serviced, how effective and capable their local governments are and to what extent communities are able to cope with climate change impact. This implies that local municipalities as 'settlements' where communities live have to be effective and well serviced in order to assist communities in their struggle to adapt and mitigate climate change. However, if a municipality does not have a clear plan through an IDP of how they intend to adapt and mitigate the effects of climate change, then the communities' adaptive capacity is adversely affected.
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) points out that the science is clear and the debate is over as climate change is happening and there is a need to act now without delay. The route now and the most common strategies are to cope and/or learn to live with the impact of climate change (adaptation) and to reduce the impact of climate change (mitigation) (United Nations Development Programme 2008:41). It is within this scenario of adaptation and mitigation that municipalities have to assist communities to adapt to and mitigate the effects of climate change. Table 1 shows the difference between adaptation and mitigation as part of the conceptual framework of the article.
It emerges therefore that adaptation and mitigation strategies are supportive of each other and are interlinked. Hence, incorporating both strategies to reduce or cope with climate change is no longer a 'nice to have' for municipalities but inevitable as climate change is a reality. In essence, climate change will almost certainly make the process of eradicating poverty and to achieve the incoming Sustainable Development Goals more difficult (United Nations Millennium project 2012). This is because of its direct effect on poor people's livelihoods and assets upon which they depend on like land and water resources that are slowly depleting as a result of the impact of climate change. It is against this backdrop that the article seeks to investigate the inclusion of climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies in IDPs in the seven vulnerable municipalities in Limpopo Province of South Africa. . This implies that South Africa's participation in climate change within the international arena is outstanding. This is also supported by the numerous policies, guidelines and legislative frameworks that have been promulgated. Table 2 provides an overview of these policies and legal frameworks and summarises their relevant goals.
From Table 2, it emerges that South Africa has successfully managed to establish various legal frameworks for climate change, including sector-specific legislation in waste management, carbon tax, transport, energy efficiency, renewable energy and others.
Integrated Development Planning (IDP) is a process through which municipalities prepare a strategic plan containing short-, medium-and long-term development objectives, strategies and programmes for the municipal area. The IDP is a principal instrument that guides and informs budgeting, management and decision making related to service delivery and development in a municipality (Department of Provincial and Local Government 2000b). The IDP process enables municipalities to work together with communities and other stakeholders to find innovative and cost-effective ways of eradicating poverty and growing the local economy.  According to Roberts (2008:527), the extent to which an issue such as climate change becomes successfully institutionalised in day-to-day operations, planning and decision making at the local level by using institutional markers is outlined as follows. There is the emergence of an identifiable political or administrative champion(s) for climate change issues. These champions will assist the municipalities to ensure that climate change issues are involved and taken care of in all municipal operations. Then comes the appearance of climate change as a significant issue in mainstream municipal plans such as the IDP, Integrated Waste Management Plan, Environmental Plan, Spatial Plan and many more. This will be followed by the allocation of dedicated resources (human and financial) to climate change issues. Lastly, there will be a need to incorporate climate change considerations into political and administrative decision making.
The Ethekwini municipality is identified as having been able to develop its own Municipal Climate Protection Programme. According to the municipality's website (www. durban.gov.za), in 2004 Ethekwini Municipality initiated a Municipal Climate Protection Programme (MCPP). An important intervention included in the MCPP is the mainstreaming of climate change considerations into all aspects of the work undertaken by the municipality. This structure has ensured that climate change issues are not just linked to environmental matters but even in fields such as supply chain, marketing and many more.
Pather-Elias (2011) defines a municipal adaptation plan as a strategy that aims to assist the municipalities to cope with the impact of a changing climate and implement strategies to ensure sustainability of livelihoods and natural resources in order to build resilience and adapt. The plan should be integrated into the new and existing plans and should align with other regional plans, for example IDP. Mukheibir and Ziervogel (2007:146) have listed the following 10 steps on how to design a Municipal Climate Change Adaptation Plan: • Assess current climate trends and future projections for the geographical region. • Undertake a climate vulnerability assessment of the municipal area. • Review current development plans and priorities, for example IDP, Spatial Plan, etc. • Overlay and overlap development priorities, expected climate change, current climate vulnerability and expected future climate vulnerability using GIS for spatial interrogation. • Develop adaptation options using new and existing tools. • Prioritise the adaptation actions using tools such as multicriteria analysis (MCA), cost-benefit analysis (CBA) or social accounting matrices (SAM). • Develop programme and project scoping and design documents together with associated budget. This document will be the Municipal Adaptation Plan. • Implement the interventions prioritised by MAP. • Monitor and evaluate the interventions on an on-going basis. • Regularly review and modify the plan at predefined intervals.

Findings from the study
The author studied and analysed the content of IDPs for seven municipalities deemed most vulnerable in the Limpopo Province of South Africa. The focus was to assess how the said municipalities were mainstreaming climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies in their IDPs. Table 3 illustrates the extent to which the IDPs selected from the seven most vulnerable municipalities in the province included climate change information.
Having studied and analysed the seven IDPs from the selected municipalities, it became clear that there are similarities and BOX 1: Objects of let's respond.
• To take municipalities and their leaders (elected and corporate) through necessary steps towards climate-responsive planning and provides a set of tools to support the process.
• To assist municipalities to identify communities and sectors that might be at risk from the impact of climate change and variability and explore opportunities.
• To assist municipalities in the prioritisation of local government response actions.
• To support the integration of these priorities into IDP and related municipal sector plans.
• To align climate response with existing climate and development challenges and deepen existing response capacity.
• To develop links with research institutions and community bodies to improve the flow of information such as early warning systems.
• To improve cross-sector integration of management and development planning.
• To move more efficiently on core development objectives, providing both shortterm to long-term climate response benefits.
Source: Department of Environmental Affairs, 2012, Let's respond: An introduction to integrating climate change risks and opportunities into municipal planning, Government Printers, Pretoria differences amongst them. The following main differences were observed from the analysis. The Fetakgomo municipality is aware of its vulnerable status and this was mentioned in the IDP. The Aganang and Greater Letaba municipalities were the only municipalities that had an Integrated Waste Management Plan and an Environmental Management Plan, respectively. However, these were old, requiring face-lifting to address modern climate change challenges.
The similarities were also noticeable and included the following: all the seven IDPs studied listed climate change challenges without proposals on how to adapt and mitigate against those challenges. Six municipalities did not even mention their vulnerability status in the IDP, although this is crucial. Water scarcity was highlighted as a generic challenge for all the municipalities. This is so as the Limpopo Province is a water-scarce province. Furthermore, all the municipalities included pollution as one of their environmental challenges. Some of them referred to it as air quality, whilst others included water and surface pollution, especially in Ephraim Mogale municipality. Waste management was also cited as a problem in all municipalities except Ephraim Mogale.
The general observation was that all the IDPs did not have a structured way of presenting their environmental plans in the IDPs. All of them only listed the problems in their various municipalities with very little discussion relating to the strategies to adapt and mitigate the existing problems especially linked to their vulnerability status. This is a challenge that requires further investigation in terms of providing capacity and related solutions for the municipalities. The next section cusses on the emerging suggestions to enhance climate change adaptation and mitigation mainstreaming in the IDPs for the sample municipalities.

Suggestions to enhance climate change mainstreaming in Integrated Development Plans
Based on findings presented herein, for the seven municipalities, the study would like to propose the following suggestions for enhancing the mainstreaming of climate change adaptation and mitigation in the IDPs. There is a need for the national government to assist local municipalities, especially the seven most vulnerable in the Limpopo Province with training and up-skilling opportunities so that they can be able to implement existing policies and guidelines on climate change. Local municipality officials and politicians need to familiarise themselves with the vulnerability status of their own municipalities so that their IDPs reflect their adaptation and mitigation plans. The government's Let's Respond Toolkit, being implemented in partnership with the South African Local Government Association and other stakeholders and partners has come up with the process to assist municipalities into how to integrate climate into IDPs. Therefore, the sample municipalities are encouraged to seek assistance and join this initiative to adopt the guidelines.

Conclusion
When I looked at the IDPs from the seven most vulnerable municipalities from the Limpopo Province of South Africa, a number of challenges that these municipalities were experiencing in addressing climate change surfaced. Amongst such challenges could be listed: low local human capacity to undertake this kind of planning; limited knowledge and understanding of climate issues at local level; limited financial resources and competing resources which often result in medium-to long-term planning being sidelined; projects that do not fit into the short political life of decision makers are not implemented. It is difficult to convince decision makers to consider a need for a climate strategy when climate projections cover a longer time horizon than political and development agendas of municipalities. This implies that there is a need for an extensive engagement process to bring politicians and decision makers on board in terms of climate adaptation and mitigation. However, the reality is that scientific evidence confirms that climate change impact can already be felt in various spheres of people's lives all over the world and that most of the warming observed in the past is because of human activities. This situation implies that societies and municipalities have to make plans to adapt and mitigate the impact of climate change before it is too late.