In October 2018, the conservative United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) put the writing on the wall: We have less than 12 years to avoid the worst effects of catastrophic climate change.

South Africa lies directly in the path of the climate change catastrophe, with disastrous impacts on her people. With expected high-temperature increases in the second half of the century, “life as we know it will change completely”, and this will significantly affect human health, agriculture, and water-intensive economic sectors like mining and electricity generation. These are the South African government’s own words from its 2011 Climate Change Response Policy.

The Policy also warns that climate change in South Africa will mean increased occurrence and severity of veld and forest fires; extreme weather events; and floods and droughts. No one will feel this more acutely than today’s children and our future generations – particularly the poor.

Already the impacts of climate change are evident all around us: From Cyclones Idai and Kenneth in Mozambique and Zimbabwe to the repeated floods in KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape, as well as the ongoing and devastating droughts plaguing various parts of the country.

The Constitution guarantees all people the right to an environment not harmful to health and well-being, and the right to have the environment protected for the benefit of present and future generations. This right is already violated on a daily basis: Many people in South Africa, particularly children, are breathing in toxic air, or are exposed to highly-contaminated water – with little consequence for the polluters. Climate change will only worsen these impacts, fuelling further inequality in South Africa and human rights violations.

Apart from the devastating impacts climate change is having, and will continue to have, for life, health and other human rights – these impacts are also estimated to cost us billions. Stanford University research shows that South Africa is 10% poorer as a result of climate change impacts. The costs of failing to take action and decarbonise are also astronomical. The Climate Policy Initiative finds that South Africa faces transition risk of more than $120-billion in present value terms between 2013 and 2035. These are risks that we all face – and which the youth of today will have to pay most for – unless the government takes proactive steps to decarbonise; for example, by not locking the country into unnecessary, expensive, highly-polluting coal infrastructure.

In South Africa, our youth’s prospects are already limited by poverty and inequality; now they are being told to survive with even more limited resources and hostile climatic conditions. This has radical impacts on their rights to human dignity, equality, and life. Those too young to cast votes on 8 May are the same people who will be left to deal with the awful consequences of today’s short-sighted decision-making and inaction.

The time for us to make incremental improvements is long over – only an urgent turn-around strategy can save us from the worst climate impacts. To begin with: Robust climate change legislation, holding polluters accountable and urgently reducing greenhouse gas emissions must be adopted; reliance on fossil fuels must be urgently phased out; and we must protect our precious water resources, air, land and ecosystems on which our survival depends.

So what do our hopeful future leaders plan to do about climate change? Political party manifestos and stump speeches may as well be from a parallel universe. Only fleeting mention is made of climate change in manifestos; with no indication of its pressing urgency and unthinkable impacts. Even worse: Those same manifestos make promises for the further exploitation of fossil fuels – directly contradicting the IPCC’s stark warnings on the need for a rapid phase-out of fossil fuels if we are to have any hope of avoiding the worst impacts of climate change.

What most political parties have not yet grasped is that a safe climate is pivotal to everything – including jobs and the economy. Intricately linked to climate change, is access to clean air, safe water, sufficient food, housing, land, and, of course, human health and well-being. We cannot have a functioning economy and society without air, water, food, healthy people, places to live and work, and a safe climate.

With less than two weeks until the elections, voters must ask serious questions about how political parties and their leaders plan to tackle climate change and to ensure that the rights of children and future generations are protected. Voters should ask questions about the steps political parties will take: (1) to protect South Africa’s youth and their future from the worst impacts of climate change; and (2) to ensure clean air and water for all South Africans, particularly children.

Climate change is not an environmental issue: it’s an existential one. Politicians must act accordingly, treating this issue with the priority and urgency it demands. DM