EThekwini Municipality’s Buffelsdraai Landfill Waste to Energy Project has put Durban in the running as a finalist in the C40 Climate Leadership Group Cities Award.

The winner will be announced on 3 December 2015 at the COP21 negotiations being held in Paris, France.

Climate competitive
Durban was selected by the Climate Leadership Group (C40) as one of the 33 finalists to compete in the third annual C40 Cities Awards.
The C40 Cities Awards provides global recognition for cities demonstrating world-leading policies and programmes that reduce harmful emissions and improved sustainability. Cities are also chosen based on their representation of tangible climate change mitigation solutions in key sectors including building energy efficiency, low-carbon transport and climate adaptation.
Durban was selected in the Solid Waste Category for the Buffelsdraai Landfill Waste to Energy Project that converts landfill gasses into energy that is in turn fed into the grid.
C40 received more than 200 applications from 94 cities and the finalists’ projects were selected on assessment criteria including innovation, co-benefits and the ability to replicate and scale the project.

Durban sustainability
EThekwini City Manager Sibusiso Sithole said over the past few years the municipality has made good progress in developing and implementing climate change mitigation and adaptation initiatives.

“Many of these initiatives have received international recognition. This project of waste to energy was spearheaded by the Durban Solid Waste Unit in conjunction with our environmental planning and climate protection department and serves as a good example for embedding ‘climate change consciousness’ within the existing operations of the municipality,” said Sithole.
Selection process
Antha Williams, who leads the Environment Programme at Bloomberg Philanthropies and serves on the C40 Board, said the finalist cities have shown incredible creativity and leadership in tackling climate change.

“The C40 Cities Awards enables other leaders around the world to learn from these successes and bring solutions rapidly to scale. Cities leading in global efforts to combat climate change and their local climate action and commitments are helping nations to set more ambitious goals during global negotiations in Paris during COP21,” she said.

Durban became a C40 Innovator City in March this year. Being part of this platform enables City leaders to share success stories with other cites while also learning what other cities are doing to mitigate and adapt to climate change.