That was very unkind. Well, what can you do? When you are in Rome, you must do what the Romans do. [Laughter.] The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has identified South Africa as a hotspot for climate change. For our part as South Africa we have undertaken risk and vulnerability assessment in all our provinces through the Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries, and we continue to support the development of provincial adaptation plans.
Critically, in dealing with the behavioural change in the management of scarce resources that are impacted by climate change, our government continues to prioritise educating our communities and industry players on the effects of climate change, the risks, the
mitigation and adaption strategies. Given our commitments under the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, we continue to endeavour to reduce the dependency of our energy from fossil fuel sources to cleaner ones including renewable energies.
To this end, Cabinet has recently approved the Integrated Resource Plan 2019 as part of government commitment to reduce reliance on coal as a source of energy to less than 20% by 2050. South Africa is also a water- scarce country and we should therefore look into technologies that improve precision irrigation for our agricultural sector. The SA Weather Services, in partnership with the Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries, has initiated the development of the National Framework for Climate Change Services.
This is aimed at providing updates on climate and weather information to guide decision making. One of these framework significant products to be developed is the early warning system which will be critical for all climate sensitive sectors including agriculture. The SA National Biodiversity Institute co-ordinates the implementation of Adaptation Fund Projects in Limpopo, KwaZulu-Natal and the Northern Cape.
These projects are aimed at developing communities and small-scale farmers in early warning systems, climate-proof settlements as well as climate- resilient agriculture. Government is currently in the process of developing the National Adaptation Strategy that articulates intervention to strengthen capacity building awareness including mainstreaming climate change in school curricula.
The National Adaptation Strategy will act as a common reference point for climate change adaptation efforts in the whole country. I will focus on key sectors such as water, health, agriculture, biodiversity, oceans and the coasts. In our efforts to finance the climate change response initiatives, South Africa has concluded bilateral agreements with Germany that will enable the provision of support to South Africa's response initiatives through the Climate Support Programme as well as the Government of Flanders in Belgium through the third country support strategy focusing on climate adaptation.
On partnering with Higher Education Institution, the horticulture, milling, grain and meat industries have identified climate change as a key skill driver within their sectors. To this end, in responding to the emerging skills challenges, the AgriSETA in collaboration with Higher Education Institution is prioritising the training of
Environmental Research Scientists, Conservation Officers, Environmental Officers, Research and Agricultural Scientists. These programmes that we are talking about will be predominantly driven through the allocation of bursaries and graduate placement programmes.
The other participating institutions include the Agricultural Research Council, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, the Water Research Commission, the University of Wits, University of Cape Town, University of Stellenbosch, Rhodes University and the Free State University. Furthermore, the National School of Government has included mainstream climate change module in their compulsory induction programme which will benefit government officials at selected levels.
In this regard, we call upon government, business and civil society to collectively participate in tackling challenges that are posed by climate change. As a signatory to the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, South Africa is committed to reduce carbon emissions from the energy sector in particular in line with our 2016 intended national determined contribution. Thank you very much. [Applause.]