Photo: City-of-Johannesburg
Johannesburg to fund retrofits through bond issues
20 January 2014
by Richard Forster
The mayor of Johannesburg, Mpho Parks Tau, has said that the city is looking at issuing special bonds to help fund the retrofitting of its buildings.
According to a BDline report the mayor made the comments during a business dialogue on climate change in Johannesburg today. Tau said that developing alternative finance options for the funding of climate adaptation is central to his city.
“These strategic adaptations are regarded as being fundamental for the City of Johannesburg’s effort to effectively adapt to the evolving threat of climate change,” he said.
The city has issued seven bonds since 2004. In 2007 Jozibonds were listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange to help upgrade and build new infrastructure, including the Rea Vaya Bus Rapid Transit. They were also publicised as a method to encourage a culture of savings among residents.
The business dialogue, organised with the National Business Initiative and South African Cities Network, was held in the build up to the C40 Cities Mayor Summit that will take place in Johannesburg next week. Projects and initiatives that were presented will be distributed and discussed at the C40 summit.
Included will be the release of Johannesburg’s own greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory. The city has worked with C40’s Measurement and Planning Initiative, in partnership with Siemens and the World Research Institute, to conduct a first-ever city wide GHG inventory and baseline.
“Johannesburg is also the first African C40 city to adopt the Global Protocol for Community-Scale Greenhouse Gas Emissions upon which the inventory will be based,” added Tau. “This will include a sector specific breakdown of emissions. The data and information obtained will be used to identify which sectors are the biggest contributors to the city’s current emissions and help shape future policy, targets, and programmes to reduce these levels.”
The C40 Summit will be held for the first time in Africa, from 4-6 February and will be co-hosted by Mayor Tau and former mayor of New York City and outgoing Chair of C40, Michael Bloomberg.
