Measuring low-carbon energy use across the University

UWC's July 2025 Energy Security Solution MOU includes advanced metering and measurement alongside solar generation, battery storage and analytics. The earlier tender specified online energy metering and load monitoring. The complete account retains these development and procurement milestones, including the differing annual-report chronology, without treating proposed capacity as measured generation. [C04] [C03] [C06]

Evidence and context

A lower-carbon energy programme: procurement and the 2025 agreement

UWC’s October 2024 public tender specified a 4 MWp photovoltaic system with battery storage serving main-campus residences and academic buildings, Unibell residence and the Chemical Science car park. The tender included online energy metering, load monitoring, operational support and technology replacement or upgrading over the service period. It sought Build, Operate and Transfer proposals, with an operations-and-maintenance period capped at 20 years from the infrastructure completion certificate. The capacity was a procurement specification, not a commissioned generation figure. [C03, Published 4 October 2024; Services Rendered and Contract Duration]

On 7 July 2025, UWC announced an MOU for an integrated Energy Security Solution. Its four components were solar photovoltaic panels, advanced metering and measurement, battery energy storage and a business-intelligence layer supporting analytics and operational efficiency. The stated aims were to reduce the carbon footprint, improve electricity resilience and support clean-energy priorities. The announcement placed the project within a Roadmap to Clean Energy Security that also included energy-conscious infrastructure, awareness campaigns, rechargeable lighting, battery packs and generator support during outages. [C04, Published 7 July 2025]

The annual reports retain an important chronology. The 2024 report describes an initiated tender process and an award at the time of reporting, with the contract not finalised. The later signed report for 2025 dates the award to early 2026. The MOU is therefore a substantive 2025 development milestone; the announcement does not establish a commissioning date or measured carbon savings. [C06, Printed pp.19–20, 57 / physical pp.21–22, 59] [C02, Physical/printed p.27]

UWC’s clean-energy MOU announcement, published in July 2025. The announcement marks a development agreement; it does not establish commissioned renewable generation. Credit: University of the Western Cape; individual photographer not stated. Image source.

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Local climate-risk education and campaigns

UWC's 2025 community workshop connected children's rights and local climate pressures, while its School of Public Health and the Western Cape Government offered a climate-health course confirmed as delivered in November. The full evidence also retains climate-law learning, energy-awareness campaigns, public arts and water-risk discussions, with each programme's audience, date and status. [E02] [E05] [E06]

Evidence and context

Energy awareness through everyday choices

UWC’s #TurnItOff campaign, published on 7 March 2024, encouraged students and staff to switch off unused lights, computers, monitors and printers, avoid unnecessary standby power and turn off air conditioning when leaving a room. It also advised against using air conditioning during load shedding. The campaign connected practical action on campus and at home with messages from University leadership. [C08, Published 7 March 2024]

The Power the Change competition invited registered UWC students to communicate energy-saving ideas through short TikTok or YouTube videos in 2025. The call opened in July, closed on 15 August and scheduled the winners’ announcement for 1 September. Selected videos were intended to support the University’s awareness campaign. The public call documents a student-facing engagement opportunity; it does not itself provide participation totals or verified energy savings. [C09, Published 15 July 2025]

Learning with communities about climate and children’s rights

Climate education at UWC connects environmental change with rights, livelihoods and the needs of communities. The Dullah Omar Institute’s 2024 report records a community-leaders training workshop held at UWC’s Chemical Sciences Building on 13 November 2024. Its programme considered children’s rights in relation to climate change and business practices, with Akot Makur Chuot presenting on climate and children’s rights. The same report places climate questions within the Children’s Rights Project’s wider teaching and knowledge-sharing work, including postgraduate engagement. The workshop provides an earlier foundation for the community-facing work continued in 2025. [E01, Annual Report 2024, printed pp. 21–22, 30, 32 and 45]

That community-facing approach continued in 2025. A conversational workshop held at UWC on 11 August 2025 and organised by the Institute’s Children’s Rights Project brought together community and religious leaders, early childhood development teachers and grassroots activists. Participants explored how climate pressures affect children and how local leadership can make space for children and young adults to contribute to solutions. The discussion considered classroom heat and cold, safe places to play and the importance of listening to young people. Participants called for a stronger child-rights perspective in local climate governance and intergenerational support for youth advocacy. Reported in August, the workshop was part of the African children’s-rights work supported by Sweden’s development-cooperation agency. Its contribution was to awareness, dialogue and local capacity; the public account does not report a resulting municipal policy or quantify reductions in climate risk. [E02, Article body / identified programme section] [D01, 2025 activities, printed pp. 17 and 58]

Community leaders at UWC’s 2025 workshop on children’s rights and climate change. Credit: Supplied / University of the Western Cape. Image source.

The Institute also connected local concerns with regional deliberation. At its 2025 SADC-focused seminar, government officials, civil-society organisations, researchers, regional representatives and young people considered how climate law, national commitments, finance and responses to loss and damage could better account for children. Participants highlighted the differing needs of children in vulnerable circumstances, including children with disabilities. UWC’s post-event account records agreement to develop action points and the appointment of a steering group to follow them through. These are practical next steps for collaboration, while their later implementation should be assessed separately. [E03, Article body / identified programme section]

The SADC Parliamentary Forum independently identifies the seminar dates as 2–4 July 2025 and the venue as UWC’s School of Public Health. Its account names the Dullah Omar Institute’s Children’s Rights Project as organiser and situates the meeting at the intersection of child rights, environmental law and climate justice. This regional partnership widened the audience for climate education beyond the university and created a shared setting for public institutions and civil society to examine child-responsive action. [E04, Article body / identified programme section]

The Institute also helped convene African Perspectives on International Climate Change Law, a hybrid symposium held in Cape Town on 7–8 April 2025. Its Children’s Rights Project co-hosted the event with the Centre for International Law and Policy in Africa and Harvard Law School’s Human Rights Program, in collaboration with UWC’s Global Environmental Law Centre and the Centre for International Law at the National University of Singapore. The symposium brought scholars, practitioners, policymakers and civil-society participants together to consider African perspectives on international climate law. [D01, 2025 report, printed pp. 16–17]

Preparing health professionals for climate risks

UWC’s School of Public Health and the Western Cape Government jointly offered a practical short course linking climate change with frontline health work. The 2025 programme was designed for environmental health practitioners, air-quality officers, nurses, allied health workers, NGO staff working with communities and interested UWC students. Its planned structure combined three classroom days with two days of visits to monitoring and innovation sites near Cape Town. Convened by Martina Lembani and Solange Mianda, the course, accredited for continuing professional development by the HPCSA, covered health effects, air pollution, vulnerability, mitigation and adaptation, and the roles of health workers and authorities. Its aim was to help participants recognise climate-related risks and advocate for action in their institutions and communities. [E05, Article body / identified programme section]

A separate account from the South African Medical Research Council confirms that the inaugural course took place from 24 to 28 November 2025. The Council reports more than 30 participants engaging in lecture sessions and two field visits. Caradee Wright taught on 24 and 25 November, addressing the links between climate and health, the health effects of climate manifestations, and risk and vulnerability. The participation figure is the Council’s reported course attendance, rather than a measured change in health outcomes or community resilience. [E06, Article body / identified programme section]

UWC expertise also contributed to evaluating climate-health education across Africa. Woldekidan Amde, affiliated with UWC’s School of Public Health and the Association of Schools of Public Health in Africa, coauthored a 2025 evaluation of the Africa Climate and Health Responder Course. The course itself ran online from 17 September to 22 October 2024. Developed through a regional partnership with Columbia University’s Global Consortium on Climate and Health Education, Africa CDC, WHO AFRO, Project ECHO and other organisations, it combined expert teaching, African case studies and live discussion. Participation was free, with English delivery and simultaneous French and Portuguese interpretation.

The evaluation distinguishes 7,572 registrants from 3,500 people who attended at least one session and a 1,657-person final-survey group. Participants included government, NGO, academic and private-sector professionals. Survey respondents reported stronger awareness, communication confidence and preparedness to support adaptation and more resilient health systems. These findings support accessible, multilingual professional education as a promising route to capacity building. They do not demonstrate that all registrants completed the course, that UWC trained the entire cohort alone, or that the programme produced measured changes in clinical practice. The authors identify self-report and participant selection as limitations. Planned longer-term follow-up and train-the-trainer work are distinct from the results already reported. [E07, Affiliations; abstract; sections 2.1–2.5, 3, 4.1, 5; CC BY 4.0]

Surveyed awareness before and after the Africa climate-health responder course: 2024 course data reported in 2025. This figure reports self-assessed awareness, not clinical or patient outcomes. Credit: Magalhães et al. (2025), Frontiers in Public Health 13:1617723, Figure 2, CC BY 4.0; unchanged figure. Image source. CC BY 4.0.

Developing climate-law knowledge and public understanding

Formal study provides another route into climate action. UWC’s 2025 Climate Law and Governance module is a 30-credit, NQF Level 9 offering within the LLM in Environment Law. Its curriculum brings climate science together with legal and governance questions in South African, regional and international settings. Students are expected to examine mitigation and adaptation, the relationship between climate rights and climate justice, the responsibilities of different public institutions, and the potential of litigation. The module also asks students to analyse environmental legislation and apply legal reasoning to practical situations. This is evidence of a specialised postgraduate learning opportunity; it does not make climate education compulsory for every UWC student. [E08, Faculty of Law 2025 calendar, Climate Law and Governance 818, printed pp. 229–231]

The academic programme record also lists Climate Law and Governance as a 30-credit second-semester module in the 2024 LLM Environment Law stream. This provides a dated point of continuity for specialised climate teaching before 2025. [E09, Article body / identified programme section]

Beyond degree teaching, UWC convened a discussion with alumni and the business community in Gauteng on 29 August 2024. Angela van der Berg, Director of the Global Environmental Law Centre, explained South Africa’s newly enacted climate framework, while an alumni moderator and panellists from finance and a community water initiative brought professional and social perspectives. The discussion considered alignment of public policy, adaptation informed by risk assessment, emissions reduction and the importance of implementation for vulnerable communities. Organised by Institutional Advancement, it translated legal change into a setting where participants could consider its practical implications. The event is a public-education contribution, not evidence that the university adopted the national framework as its own institutional climate plan. [E10, Article body / identified programme section]

Sharing climate knowledge across disciplines and borders

UWC hosted the 16th SANORD International Conference from 4 to 6 December 2024. Environmental justice and climate action featured among the conference themes, bringing these questions into a wider exchange on knowledge, equity and sustainable futures. The official programme overview records the event dates, while UWC’s post-conference account confirms that the gathering took place. [E11, Official conference programme overview, 4–6 December 2024] [E12, post-conference account]

UWC’s post-conference report records more than 330 delegates at SANORD 2024. It describes workshops, panels, roundtables and presentations addressing the relationship between knowledge, equity and sustainable futures. Climate action and environmental justice formed part of those exchanges. The value of the event for SDG 13 lies in bringing people and disciplines together to share evidence, interrogate whose knowledge informs decisions and develop further collaboration. The attendance total covers the conference as a whole, across its different themes. [E12, Article body / identified programme section]

Research Week provided an additional campus platform in 2024. Held from 16 to 19 September, it included a stream on net-zero transformation and environmental sustainability, covering carbon neutrality, climate sustainability, deforestation, water contamination, ocean acidification and related innovation. The programme placed these themes alongside health, human rights, governance and other areas of research. Such exchanges help make connections between specialised work and broader societal challenges. [E13, Article body / identified programme section]

The 2025 Research Week, held from 8 to 10 September, continued this emphasis on collaboration. UWC’s retrospective describes researchers, students and partners engaging with themes spanning health innovation, sustainability, technology and social transformation, with climate change among the national priorities addressed. The event offered a forum for bringing work across disciplinary boundaries into conversation. Its documented contribution is research communication and exchange; no separate climate-course completion total is reported. [E14, Article body / identified programme section]

Student learning also extended beyond UWC. The Office of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research and Innovation supported three students to attend the July 2024 EnergyWaterFoodClimate Nexus Summit in Durban, organised by Mangosuthu University of Technology, SANEDI and Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University. Biotechnology students Liyabona Mula and Ruvimbo Mhari and political-studies doctoral student Kurisani Mdhluli reflected on links between energy, water, food and climate, practical research applications and the need for interdisciplinary perspectives. These accounts show an opportunity for emerging researchers to engage with government, industry and other students. Their subsequent intentions to collaborate are aspirations recorded in the reflections, rather than completed project outcomes. [E15, Article body / identified programme section]

Making climate action visible through art and science

Creative public engagement gave UWC’s climate contribution an international platform in 2025. The Centre for Humanities Research and its artists-in-residence, Ukwanda Puppets and Design Arts Collective, partnered with The Walk Productions on THE HERDS. UWC’s launch account describes life-size animal puppets made with raw and recycled materials for a public-art journey intended to draw attention to global warming and the vulnerability of wildlife. Luyanda Nogodlwana, Siphokazi Mpofu and Sipho Ngxola developed their practice at the Centre’s Iyatsiba Lab in Woodstock. The partnership linked Cape Town-based creative expertise with a travelling climate-awareness project and plans to train local puppeteers along the route. [E16, Article body / identified programme section]

The project’s subsequent official account confirms that its first journey began in Kinshasa in April 2025 and reached Nordkapp after travelling through African and European towns and cities. That retrospective corroborates delivery of the journey announced by UWC, while avoiding the assumption that a launch itinerary itself proves every planned stop occurred. The public performances brought climate concerns into streets and shared cultural spaces, creating opportunities for audiences to encounter environmental questions outside a classroom or research conference. [E17, Article body / identified programme section]

An animal puppet at the Ukwanda workshop, featured in UWC’s 2025 climate-action account. Credit: Shelley Christians / University of the Western Cape. Image source.

THE HERDS’ associated education programme, Let the Wildness In, provides downloadable habitat-learning packs and puppet-making guides. The resources connect climate action with ecosystems including the Congo Basin, Mediterranean, European forests, Sahara and Arctic. They offer a practical way for young people to engage with the project through making and learning. These are partner resources: the project credits Jessica Dives for writing, Diala Brisly for illustration and Rachel Wild for graphic design, alongside its wider creative team. Their availability complements the UWC-linked public-art partnership; it does not establish that UWC authored the packs or delivered every associated school activity. [E18, Article body / identified programme section]

A different strand of climate communication appears in a 2025 open-access chemistry-education paper coauthored by UWC-affiliated Michael T. Davies-Coleman and Dudley E. Shallcross. A Pollutant’s Tale and its primary-school companion, Gases in the Air, use demonstrations to introduce atmospheric composition, pollution and the climate system to different audiences. The article documents an international programme developed over approximately eighteen years, with recorded versions of the talks and individual demonstration videos. It explains how content can be adapted for learners’ ages and cultural contexts, and connects discussion of greenhouse gases with possible responses to warming.

The publication makes the teaching approach available for other educators to examine and adapt. It also discusses how presenting science to the public can develop students’ planning and communication skills. This is a contribution to the evidence base and resources for climate education, rather than a claim that every demonstration was delivered at UWC or that the programme’s global reach occurred in 2025. The paper is published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. Its laboratory demonstrations require suitable expertise, safety assessment and supervision; the existence of videos should not be treated as sufficient preparation to reproduce experiments with schoolchildren. [E19, Article pp. 2235–2242; affiliations and licence; public education design; CC BY 4.0]

Building on earlier climate-learning initiatives

Earlier activities show the foundations on which this work developed. During National Science Week in 2019, UWC’s Physics and Astronomy Department offered climate-change debates, public lectures on carbon footprints and school visits linking science with career pathways. The programme considered the causes and effects of climate change and the role of alternative energy. [E20, Article body / identified programme section]

In August 2021, the 34th ACCESS Habitable Planet Workshop brought together 36 students to examine Earth-system science and African perspectives on climate change. UWC academics contributed teaching, while field visits connected scientific concepts with landscapes, ecosystems and heritage. Discussion also addressed the ethical and social questions surrounding climate action. The workshop illustrates a combination of scientific learning, local context and cross-institutional participation, with its date and cohort kept distinct from later activity. [E21, Article body / identified programme section]

Campus climate awareness was also visible in UWC’s March 2019 Green Campus Initiative announcements. These advertised a climate-justice campaign and a campus dialogue on how students and staff contribute to climate change. The notice records the intended opportunities to engage, including a small discussion format. It is useful historical context, but an invitation alone does not verify actual attendance or continuing delivery in 2024 or 2025. [E22, Article body / identified programme section]

Opening discussion on water and early-warning knowledge

UWC’s Institute for Water Studies advertised an Open Day for 21 May 2025 with WISA’s Western Cape Branch as a partner. The planned programme connected remote sensing and big-data research with water management in dry environments, and included CSIR contributions on space-based early-warning technologies. Groundwater vulnerability, precision agriculture and water-sector research support were also on the agenda. The announcement demonstrates an effort to convene researchers and water-management partners around information relevant to climate risk. It does not, by itself, establish delivery of an operational warning service for government or prove the event’s eventual attendance. [E23, Article body / identified programme section]

Connecting climate learning with African land governance

PLAAS and the Network of Excellence on Land Governance in Africa hosted a two-day online course on Climate Change and Land Governance in Africa on 29–30 April 2025. NELGA’s post-course account records participation by land professionals, researchers, civil-society representatives and policymakers from across Africa. Teaching combined climate justice, tenure security, adaptation and sustainable land use with practical case studies and community-led responses. UWC’s later account of the November 2025 Conference on Land Policy in Africa places this pilot alongside PLAAS’s established role as a specialist NELGA node and its wider land-governance training. [C20, Supplied article pp.1–2; conference 10–13 November 2025] [N02, post-course account, 2 May 2025] [N03, 2025 course record]

The same account records commitments to develop and implement the climate course for two cohorts, pursue accreditation, offer more multilingual learning and hold a regional dialogue on land, natural resources or climate change. Those commitments describe the next stage, rather than completed cohorts. It also records the launch of the Land Availability and Land-use Changes in Africa report at a conference side event on 12 November 2025 and a conference call to strengthen relevant training and evidence. This links UWC’s climate-related scholarship to a continental forum while keeping the pilot, future intentions and policy recommendations distinct. [C20, Supplied article p.2; published 4 December 2025]

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University climate-action plan shared with local government or communities

UWC's Infrastructure Management Policy explicitly considers climate change in infrastructure planning and calls for sustainability, efficiency and future-proofing within practical and financial conditions. The 2024 Annual Report records Council's 2023 Sustainable Energy Security Strategy decision. These dated institutional provisions remain below, alongside the separate government and community collaborations described in the following sections. [C01] [C02]

Evidence and context

Building climate responsibility into the campus estate

UWC’s Infrastructure Management Policy, approved on 22 September 2022 and implemented the next day, makes climate change an explicit consideration in infrastructure planning. It calls for sustainability to be integrated into projects and for future-proofing against environmental, technological and regulatory change, as far as practical and cost-effective. These commitments sit within a whole-life approach to maintenance, infrastructure risk and investment. The policy also calls for energy- and water-efficient infrastructure, transport choices that prioritise pedestrians and public or non-motorised transport, and landscaping that creates shade and shelter. Its complete relevant provisions below retain the policy’s financial and practical qualifications. [C01, Cover; Preamble; sections 4.2 and 4.5; Annexures A, B and C]

The Annual Report 2024 records that Council approved a Sustainable Energy Security Strategy in 2023 and approved Phase 1 implementation involving solar generation and battery storage. It also describes a Campus Landscaping Project that introduced indigenous, waterwise gardens in the third quarter of 2024. These are dated decisions and activities within a broader institutional sustainability programme. [C02, Physical/printed pp.15, 18, 28]

Policy provisions supporting climate action and resilience

The following complete selected provisions reproduce the relevant wording of the supplied institutional policies. Their scope, responsibilities and practical or financial conditions form part of the commitments. Policy dates identify the supplied versions, while the sources below provide the full documents.

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Cooperative climate-disaster planning with government

UWC's urban-transition research connects residents' experiences of water and energy insecurity with municipal and national discussions. A separate 2024–2027 climate-mobilities research partnership includes public bodies and addresses adaptation for people with insecure housing. The full accounts retain their research and engagement scope, dates and next steps. [P07] [P09] [P20]

Evidence and context

Making the urban climate transition socially just

Climate action changes who can obtain essential services and who pays for them. UWC’s Politics and Urban Governance Research Group leads Governing the Just Urban Transition, an NRF-supported project running from 2024 to 2026 with the Gauteng City-Region Observatory and researchers at Cambridge, Cardiff and Sheffield. Its focus is how small businesses in low-income parts of Johannesburg and Cape Town secure water and energy during recurring service interruptions. The research design combines interviews, observation, surveys and participatory photography to bring everyday coping practices into discussion about a fair transition. In April 2025, the team met at UWC and undertook engagement in Khayelitsha. In October, participants from Setswetla presented photographic accounts of their businesses’ water and energy challenges at a Johannesburg City Forum exhibition. These activities make residents’ experience visible in research and public discussion without assuming that recommendations have already become policy. [P07, Project background; April 2025 workshop; October 2025 Setswetla exhibition]

A related South African Cities Network research paper, co-authored by Fiona Anciano and Christina Culwick Fatti, examines the governance required for a just urban transition. Through renewable-energy, informal-settlement sanitation and housing cases, it considers how government, businesses and community organisations share power and responsibility. The paper highlights a difficult connection: private infrastructure can improve security for those able to afford it while affecting the municipal revenue used to support wider services. Its policy contribution is to make such distributional choices explicit and to encourage adaptable, collaborative approaches. Published as an August 2023 report and discussed subsequently with practitioners, it provides a foundation for engagement rather than evidence that one governance model has been implemented in every city. [P08, Executive summary, case studies and reflections on governance]

Bringing research into government and city discussions

On 22 July 2024, UWC’s PUG group, the South African Cities Network and the Gauteng City-Region Observatory hosted an online knowledge exchange on off-grid cities and just-transition governance. Fiona Anciano and Christina Culwick Fatti presented the research. The discussion included the Presidential Climate Commission, the National Treasury Cities Support Programme and the Public Affairs Research Institute, with responses from officials of Johannesburg and Cape Town. PUG reports 221 participants. This is a documented route through which UWC research reached people working on national and municipal climate questions, including the interaction between decarbonisation, infrastructure finance and social inclusion. [P09, Completed event account; start/end dates; panellists and attendance]

The exchange built on continuing work with cities. The Off-grid Cities project had convened a municipal roundtable in November 2023 involving Cape Town, Johannesburg and Tshwane to discuss private renewable-energy investment and its implications for municipalities. Its 2024 programme then combined practitioner engagement with collaborative writing and academic dissemination. These activities place climate-transition research in conversation with the institutions responsible for providing urban services. [P10, Project activities: November 2023 and 2024]

Climate adaptation and insecure housing

International climate research also examines what adaptation means for people with insecure housing. King’s College London lists UWC among the partners in Transforming Places for the Precariously Housed: Equitable Adaptation Pathways for Climate Mobilities, with a project period from June 2024 to June 2027. The collaboration includes Carleton University as lead, other universities, the Greater London Authority and the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development. The grant record establishes UWC’s participation in research connecting housing insecurity and equitable adaptation; it does not yet establish completed community interventions or policy outcomes. [P20, Project dates and collaborative partners]

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Supporting government climate-risk warning and monitoring

UWC's 2025 flood research offers modelling and spatial-analysis approaches relevant to preparedness. Government-linked SmartAgri reporting also identifies UWC as an extreme-heat adaptation partner in a 2025–2026 monitoring-and-prediction project. The complete account retains the tool's planned development stage and distinguishes retrospective flood mapping from a live warning system. [P12] [P14] [P17] [N01]

Evidence and context

Flood science for better preparedness

In 2025, UWC’s Institute for Water Studies communicated research calling for flood preparedness to combine stronger technical models with the realities of vulnerable communities. Timothy Dube, Sibuyisele Pakati and collaborator Cletah Shoko highlighted gaps in data, infrastructure and the inclusion of informal settlements in planning. Their recommendations favour integrating climate projections, real-time monitoring and community perspectives with urban governance. This public-facing contribution helps explain why flood risk cannot be addressed through technical simulation alone; it is a research-based call for improved practice, rather than evidence of an adopted government disaster plan. [P12, Research explanation and government-facing recommendations]

The team’s 2025 global review examines the strengths and limits of urban flood models and proposes a framework for choosing suitable methods. It identifies the value of combining hydraulic and hydrological models with satellite information, including radar that can operate through cloud and rain. It also identifies unresolved questions about integrating detailed climate projections, socio-economic conditions and rapid land-use changes. The work supports more informed choices about modelling and risk assessment, while recognising that data quality and validation constrain what a model can reliably show. [P13, Abstract, model comparison and research gaps]

A separate 2025 study by Pakati, Shoko and Dube applies Earth-observation methods to Cape Town’s 2023 flood period. It combines Sentinel-1 radar, Sentinel-2 imagery and Google Earth Engine to map inundation and examine affected land-cover classes. The study identifies particular exposure in low-lying built-up areas and locations near floodplains and water bodies. Such spatial analysis can help planners identify where further investigation and preparedness are needed. It is retrospective research on a defined flood episode, not a live warning system or a measured reduction in disaster losses. [P14, Abstract, methods and conclusions; first-page publication dates]

Natural systems as part of climate resilience

Research involving UWC ecologist Patrick O’Farrell examines how municipal decisions account for the benefits supplied by natural open spaces. Published in the 2024 volume of People and Nature after first appearing online in December 2023, the study analyses Nelson Mandela Bay’s planning documents and interviews conducted from October to December 2019 with eleven senior municipal officials and one implementing-agency representative. It finds that service-delivery pressures, institutional constraints and differing understandings of nature shape management choices. The researchers argue for stronger attention to regulating services, collaborative management and the involvement of officials in developing practical decision-support tools. These are relevant foundations for climate resilience, but the study does not show that its recommendations were subsequently adopted by the municipality. [P15, Abstract; methods; discussion and policy implications]

O’Farrell brought related concerns into public discussion in March 2025, drawing attention to the intersection of climate change, urban development and ecosystem degradation. His account connects the loss of functioning natural systems with the uneven distribution of benefits across Cape Town, including the Cape Flats. It also recognises the competing responsibilities facing local government, such as housing, employment and municipal revenue. This contribution frames resilience as a planning question involving both ecological function and residents’ wellbeing, rather than treating conservation as separate from social development. [P16, Public interview and urban planning discussion]

International cooperation on heat adaptation

The Western Cape Government’s 2025 SmartAgri reporting identifies UWC’s School of Public Health as an implementation partner in a Mediterranean Climate Action Partnership project on extreme heat. Led by the Regional Government of Santiago in Chile, with the Western Cape and California as partner regions, the collaboration includes Universidad de Chile, Universidad Andrés Bello and REDPE. Its planned Heat Island Monitoring and Prediction Tool will combine temperature observations with census and health data to help regional and local authorities identify exposed areas and inform adaptation. The December account sets out a 2025–2026 programme of baseline assessment, heat sampling and tool development. It establishes UWC’s participation in government-linked adaptation cooperation; it does not yet establish an operational tool or measured reduction in heat risk. [P17, MCAP mini-sprint project 2: extreme heat; physical p. 19/printed p. 19] [N01, MCAP extreme-heat project, physical/printed p. 13]

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NGO collaboration on climate adaptation

The Giyani Local Scale Climate Resilience Programme brought UWC together with the non-profit AWARD, Tsogang Water and Sanitation, the Water Research Commission and municipalities. UWC contributed water and energy expertise within the partnership. Other retained examples include NGO-and-resident flood-risk assessment in Diepsloot and collaborative coastal and land-rights research, each with its own scope and dates. [P01] [A01] [P02] [P11]

Evidence and context

Community-led climate resilience in Giyani

UWC’s role in the Giyani Local Scale Climate Resilience Programme connects climate research with the everyday need for reliable water. Funded by the Government of Flanders and coordinated through the Water Research Commission, the programme brought the University together with the non-profit Association for Water and Rural Development (AWARD) and Tsogang Water and Sanitation. AWARD records implementation at nine sites in Greater Giyani: four community water-supply sites and five agricultural cooperatives. Its completion account dates the programme from November 2021 to May 2025 and reports a cumulative reach of 5,000 people. These are partnership-wide figures for selected communities, rather than an annual UWC beneficiary total. [P01, Overview, timeline, funders and partners] [A01, organisational status]

The programme’s water-use guideline makes the division of responsibilities clear. UWC supplied water and energy technical expertise; Tsogang led infrastructure work; AWARD supported learning and stakeholder engagement; and the WRC’s enterprise-development arm addressed local economic opportunities. The collaboration worked with Mopani District and Greater Giyani local municipalities. Prepared in a file dated November 2024, the guideline treats adaptation as a household and community practice: matching water use to the supply available, maintaining equipment, protecting shared resources and supporting gardens, livestock and small businesses. It recognises that households using communal collection points face different constraints from those with private sources. [P02, Acknowledgements; programme roles; purpose and household access categories]

From feasibility studies to monitored pilot systems

The technical foundations were developed through site-specific research. A 2023 paper by UWC researchers Nebojša Jovanovic, Mandelwa Mpambo and Alana Willoughby and colleagues used stakeholder engagement, field information and the Solar Powered Irrigation Systems toolbox to assess nine proposed sites. It considered water availability and quality, pumping requirements, financial arrangements and the suitability of renewable energy. The study identified opportunities to reduce dependence on diesel and unreliable electricity, while also identifying a risk: inexpensive solar pumping can encourage excessive abstraction. Its practical message is that clean energy and water security need to be designed together, with groundwater monitoring, appropriate treatment and arrangements for operation and maintenance. The feasibility calculations supported decisions about pilots; they were not measurements of benefits already achieved across Limpopo. [P03, Methods, nine-site feasibility assessment, discussion and conclusions]

By the May/June 2024 WISA conference publication, a UWC-authored presentation abstract reported that solar-powered groundwater and multiple-use systems had been established at nine pilot sites. Six months of monitoring examined water volumes, quality and productivity. The findings were mixed: pumping rates varied, groundwater levels declined at some stages and recovered after rainfall or flooding, and water-quality problems required treatment systems. The abstract also reported energy-cost savings and community training. This provides direct evidence of implemented and monitored adaptation work by 2024, while its call for continued monitoring makes clear that lasting performance still required evaluation. [P04, Session 10, groundwater presentations; physical p. 62, printed p. 60]

Infrastructure, practical learning and local ownership

A July 2025 account by the Water Research Commission describes installed solar-powered boreholes, refurbished reservoirs, irrigation improvements and decentralised treatment, alongside training in water conservation, water-quality testing and maintenance. At Matsambo Ngamba Farm, it reports a refurbished borehole, new storage and solar pumping, together with hydroponic production and farming support. The account also records handover to Greater Giyani and Mopani municipalities and agreements about community operation and maintenance. These examples show the programme moving beyond demonstration equipment towards local management. They remain reported outcomes from the programme sponsor, rather than an independent assessment of every site, and the account acknowledges continuing drought, infrastructure and maintenance challenges. [P05, Implementation, Matsambo Ngamba Farm, community water scheme, training and municipal handover]

Earlier engagement helped connect the technology with farmers’ priorities. UWC’s March 2023 account of the Giyani knowledge-transfer expo describes a programme organised around water and energy, agriculture and local enterprise. Emerging farmers and entrepreneurs were invited to technical discussions and demonstrations, with a cooperative-farm visit and public produce market in the programme. This history illustrates the partnership’s emphasis on exchange with local producers alongside scientific assessment. [P06, Programme description and expo itinerary]

Learning about flood risk with communities

UWC also participated in a practical discussion of flooding in Diepsloot in July 2024. A GCRO and University College London project explored how nature-based approaches could inform water management in the informal settlement. At a workshop hosted by Wot-If, UWC colleagues joined researchers, the NGO Sticky Situations and residents to identify flood-prone places on maps and walk to a river crossing used by the community. The visit connected modelling and survey information with people’s accounts of flooding, waste and everyday access. Subsequent interviews and report-writing were intended to guide possible interventions. The documented achievement is collaborative assessment and planning: the account does not claim that UWC installed flood-control infrastructure or that flooding was reduced. [P11, Research visit, 12 July 2024 workshop, walkabout and planned report]

Coastal adaptation shaped by local knowledge

UWC was a co-investigating university in Eco-ACE, an NRF-funded collaboration with the University of Cape Town and Nelson Mandela University during 2022–2024. The programme explored ecosystem-based adaptation with coastal communities, bringing together modelling, participatory research and creative methods. Its work included St Helena Bay, Melkhoutfontein and an Eastern Cape case-study site. By involving people who depend on coastal resources, the collaboration sought to connect ecological change with local livelihoods and to make community knowledge more visible in decisions about adaptation. The partner account describes a shared research programme; its activities and contributions should not be attributed to UWC alone. [P18, Past projects: Eco-ACE] [P19, project funding acknowledgement, final slide]

A 2024 Eco-ACE progress presentation shows what this approach involved. Community stakeholder mapping and needs assessment in Melkhoutfontein sat alongside research using photographs and ethnographic methods around the Swartkops River estuary. Other work examined how fishing crews, workers and rights holders understood change, while ecosystem modelling explored possible futures for the southern Benguela. A sustainable-fishing card game was adapted for the regional context and translated into Afrikaans. The presentation also identifies limits, including consultation fatigue, the challenge of integrating different kinds of evidence and the difficulty of measuring comparable impacts across projects. Its account is one of learning and developing methods, rather than a claim that all coastal communities had become climate-resilient. [P19, Slides 7–13: community methods, knowledge integration, game and progress limits]

Climate action, land and rural livelihoods

PLAAS’s 2025 report Land Availability and Land-use Changes in Africa adds a land-rights perspective to climate action. Prepared by Phillan Zamchiya and Charity Rusere with support from the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy and the Oakland Institute, it combines literature, spatial information and farmer interviews. The report challenges assumptions that land described as unused is free of livelihood, customary or ecological value. It examines pressures associated with agriculture, conservation, carbon projects and minerals needed for the energy transition, and argues that policy alternatives must take existing users and their rights seriously. This is a contribution to the debate about who benefits from climate-related investment, not evidence that the report’s recommendations have become law. [P21, Imprint and acknowledgements; executive summary; policy alternatives]

A December 2024 field account by Zamchiya illustrates why those questions matter. During a visit to Ndangane in Senegal on 8 October 2024, he examined tensions around a community conservation area and herders’ access to grazing. The account describes competing environmental and livelihood claims and argues for fuller consultation, consent and locally grounded mediation. It cautions against assuming that an intervention described as green will be equitable for everyone affected. This was research and critical observation by a PLAAS scholar, rather than a conservation project delivered by UWC. [P22, Field visit and concluding analysis]

This work builds on PLAAS’s earlier policy-oriented research agenda on climate change and rural livelihoods in Southern Africa. Its 2022 review called for climate responses to draw on social-science understanding of inequality, institutional capacity and the politics of adaptation as well as biophysical evidence. It presented questions for continuing research rather than settled solutions. That distinction remains important when assessing climate initiatives in places where land, employment and access to resources are already contested. [P23, Report summary and research-agenda conclusions]

In October 2025, PLAAS brought these debates into a wider international forum through its Land, Life and Society conference marking thirty years of the institute. More than 250 researchers, civil-society partners and supporters discussed land rights, inequality and climate change. The gathering included South African and Colombian ministerial participation and culminated in a Cape Town declaration, drafted after the conference, for contribution to the forthcoming international agrarian-reform conference. It provided a platform linking evidence and public debate across countries; the declaration’s intended later use should be distinguished from any subsequent governmental adoption. [P24, Conference dates, participants and declaration]

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Carbon-neutral target date and Greenhouse Gas Protocol context

The July 2025 energy MOU identifies lowering UWC's carbon footprint among its aims. The full energy-programme account and infrastructure provisions retain the programme stages and institutional conditions behind that aim. [C04] [C01]

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