We are grateful that the Department of Environmental Affairs is reaching out to a number of research institutions; it is reaching out to a number of universities so that all of us can spread this message and can make people aware of their actions, if their actions are detrimental to the environment people must be made aware.

Our actions must be supportive of the environment so we reduce the risk of climate change. The biggest challenge that we are facing as the country is carbon emission, mainly driven out of our power

stations and it is about time that we take the necessary steps to reduce the emission.

There are technologies that we can use to help us reduce the emission in our power stations. So, that is one step that we must

take so we steam ahead with our efforts to reduce the emissions and ensure that we impact climate change in a positive way rather than in a negative way. So yes, we are doing everything in our power to ensure that we mitigate circumstances that can worsen our climate change.

Now, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, CSIR, has made an announcement on 1 November 2019 about certain things that we must look at. The first announcement was about the month of September which has been dubbed as exceedingly the warmest month on record. The year 2019 has been among the five warmest years on earth in our recorded history. This has just been announced recently.

If we look at what the sum total of the climate change of the year, 2019 has been the warmest year. The sixth warmest years on record globally since 1880 will be the last six years which is 2014 through to 2019 with the peak occurring during the strong El Nio years of

2016. The year 2016 has been the pick. Now, climate change is influenced by our actions, the way we behave and the way we interact with nature. So, it's important that we must be schooled. We must be aware of how best we should interact with nature.

But the best way is not to disrupt nature in a negative way. If you chop trees, you must know that you are disrupting nature. If you pollute water, you must know you are disrupting nature. If you pollute the atmosphere, you must know you are disrupting nature and the consequences can be dire. Thank you very much. [Applause.]

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