On Friday, a friend was sitting at a Johannesburg restaurant amidst a storm hoping for rain. After a few minutes, it did rain – but only for less than five minutes. Someone, sitting at the same table, cynically observed, “now this is what climate change looks like".

While SA has been mainly fortunate not to have had many severe climate incidents, parts of the country are suffering the effects of climate change such as prolonged droughts. We are not alone in this. Countries such as Namibia, Madagascar and Kenya have experienced the effects of this phenomenon...