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Seminar on Climate Change

When: Thursday, 29 September 2022 - Thursday, 29 September 2022
Where: Hybrid Event
Braamfontein Campus East
Senate Room, Solomon Mahlangu House, Braamfontein Campus
Start time:16:30
Enquiries:

Julia Taylor

julia.taylor@wits.ac.za
RSVP:

Register here for online attendance 

Did climate change cause the Durban floods?

Earlier this year, floods in the country’s eastern KwaZulu-Natal province killed 489 people, destroyed 4,000 houses and displaced about 40,000 residents. Flooding started when a cut-off low-pressure system delivered extremely high rainfall levels of 450 mm in some areas in just 48 hours.

Many have called it South Africa’s deadliest storm on record, and the country’s leaders have blamed climate change for the widespread devastation. But is that accurate? Flooding is a frequent, annual and well known hazard in South Africa. In this seminar, Prof. Engelbrecht will review
the science of ‘climate change attribution’ and explain how this may increasingly underpin the UNFCCC ‘International Mechanism for Loss and
Damage’. Using a new event-attribution modelling capability developed at the Wits Global Change Institute, he will objectively explore the role of climate change in the Durban floods.

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