Speaking on the sidelines of the United Nations Habitat Assembly underway in Kenya, the Minister says climate change has left many South Africans displaced and has affected many communities.
Last year, KwaZulu-Natal was among the provinces that were affected by natural disasters when heavy rains led to flooding, leaving many homeless. Kubayi says the conversation around climate change should not only be focused on clean energy but on how it affects the people on the ground. “When we talk about natural disasters and climate change, we are the affected ones. You find that when we talk about funding for climate change, they talk about energy transition. They don’t talk about what climate change would have caused in the displacement of people and therefore allocating resources in that area because that is what we need to do. We need to understand that climate change displaces people and therefore it is billions of money needed to place people correctly.