Johannesburg, Jul 26 (PTI) BRICS can play a leading role to impact climate mitigation, adaptation and resilience strategies globally, leader of South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal province Nomusa Dube-Ncube said on Wednesday

Joining delegates from the BRICS member countries were Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep S. Puri, Director General for Housing for All Mission Kuldip Narayan from India, First Deputy Minister of Construction, Housing and Utilities of the Russian Federation and Vice Minister of Housing and Urban-Rural Development for China Qin Haixiang.

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"Today's theme, which is ‘Advancing, Strengthening and Building Urban Resilience', focuses our attention on addressing urban resilience in the face of challenges faced, including climate change. As part of BRICS we too can play a leading role locally and to impact globally in climate mitigation, adaptation and resilience strategies,” Dube-Ncube said at the opening of the Brics Urbanisation Forum in Durban on Wednesday.

She said that climate change in her province was no longer theory, after unprecedented devastating floods in April 2022 killed over 400 people and caused damage worth billions of rands to homes and infrastructure.

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“The challenge therefore for all us is to act locally and to tackle our challenges by looking at what is happening globally,” the premier added.

She called for the delegates to to use this BRICS gathering as an opportunity to cement the global partnerships for the adoption of Climate Smart Agriculture, sustainable urbanisation, and continued investment in industrial decarbonisation and the building of environments that are safe and healthy for their citizens.

“We look forward to the discussions and presentations over the coming few days which will examine the place of BRICS cities and countries and our response to the realities of rapid urbanisation, population growth, socio-economic disparities, and environmental factors,” Dube-Ncube said.

“The task of major emerging economies, Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa is to play a significant role in localising the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and implementing actions at the local level to address all the challenges related to sustainable development, urban resilience and rapid urbanisation,” she said.

Research studies show that the Africa continent is projected to have the world's fastest urban growth rate; and by 2050 cities in Africa will be home to an additional 950 million people, Dube-Ncube said.

“Much of this growth is taking place in small and medium-sized towns as people migrate to urban areas in search of better economic opportunities. As a result, cities continue to experience a rapid increase in slums and informal settlements that we see mushrooming in areas that are not suitable for human habitation.

“This rapid urbanisation also brings major risks and challenges, especially in emerging economies in BRICS countries. These urbanisation risks include pressures on critical infrastructure, water, sanitation, electricity, unsustainable housing and road networks that are being stretched well-beyond capacity. There are many other climate change related risks associated with urbanisation and increased pollution, Dube-Ncube said.

She said governments were left with the daunting task of re-thinking human settlements of the future, which would also require strengthening community participation and public-private partnerships.

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