The City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Energy, Councillor Beverley van Reenen, and leading industry experts shared insights about innovative practices and technologies to keep up with the changing energy landscape. The Energy Water Waste Forum is led by the City and is managed as a collaboration with key partners in Cape Town’s commercial sector.
‘In the context of our city and our country, how to unlock the great economic growth potential of energy security through diversification of supply is a cornerstone of our approach to the future of energy. Cape Town continues to hold steady with employment-enabling initiatives, and the potential in the energy sector is huge as we move to cleaner energy resources and reduce our dependence on Eskom. One can see from the City’s unique load-shedding protection efforts and the positive impact this has had on employment levels in Cape Town.
‘The valuable insights shared by representatives from the City’s Energy, Urban Waste Management and Water and Sanitation directorates highlights that we are heading in the right direction. It is important to have on ongoing dialogue with experts in energy, water and waste where solutions to complex challenges in our industries can be found.
‘Looking at the City’s energy efficiency plans, we are making great strides towards a more resilient and sustainable energy future. The City has made a commitment to becoming carbon neutral and climate resilient by 2050 as evident in its Climate Change Strategy and Climate Change Action Plan. A recent addition to our efforts is the publication of ‘Our Shared Energy Future: The 2050 Energy Strategy for the City, which outlines three key commitments. Notably, the Optimise Energy Use commitment which aims to enhance energy efficiency across businesses, households and municipal services.
‘The City thanks the various industry partners and stakeholders for standing with us. They have been instrumental in the development of our Energy Strategy and Resilience programme and we thank them for their immense contribution and commitment to our city and our energy resilient future,’ said Councillor Van Reenen.
