South Africa requires funding from international sources as well as a greater role by the private sector if it wants to attain its climate change objectives, writes Edna Molewa Less than a year after its adoption at the closing of the climate change conference COP21, the Paris agreement to combat climate change will come into effect next month, and become binding on all countries that have ratified the treaty.This is after the threshold was reached of at least 55 countries that were parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change finalising their instruments of ratification.It is a victory for climate action that the process of ratification has taken place with such speed. South Africa is in the final stages of going through the parliamentary ratification.story_article_left1The task before countries is to build on and strengthen the momentum that ensured the early enforcement of the agreement. For this to happen, the issue of climate finance is critical.The reality is that developing countries such as South Africa can only scale up their climate action efforts with significant investment.Ahead of the 22nd Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP22), slated for November in Morocco, environmental ministers met in Marrakesh to discuss how to implement climate action, in both the pre-2020 and post-2020 periods.This implementation refers to the provision of financial resources to enable developing countries to meet the costs of adaptation to, and mitigation of, the effects of climate change.The Paris agreement commits developed countries to provide $100-billion (about R1.4-trillion) a year by 2020 and scale that up in 2025.South Africa has consistently emphasised the importance of governments and non-state actors meeting to discuss how to find additional resources to aid our country's transition to a low-carbon, inclusive, climate-resilient economy and society.Despite facing the triple challenges of poverty, unemployment and inequality, and resulting resource and capacity constraints, we are doing our fair share towards the global effort to fight climate change.We have invested heavily in mitigation and adaptation initiatives in the green economy, renewable energy, green transport and other sectors, to name but a few.To scale up efforts requires billions of dollars in additional investment that we simply cannot find on our own. Funding for implementation includes provision for the transfer of environmentally sound, technically proven technologies, as well as for skills development and capacity building.block_quotes_start Although we are all ultimately impacted by the effects of a changing climate, such effects are not being felt evenly around the world block_quotes_endSouth Africa further emphasised in Morocco this week that we need to seriously look at so-called adaptation financing before 2020: for instance, the provision of climate-change adaptation financing to help manage issues like water scarcity.Like many other countries on the continent, South Africa is semi-arid, with less than 5% of annual rainfall available to recharge our groundwater aquifers (large underground lakes). In an ever-changing climate, our existing water challenges are exacerbated.Extreme weather includes drought, which leads to diminished agricultural production and loss of food security, especially for people in rural areas.Irregular rainfall can lead to an increase in human and animal disease, including cholera, malaria and diarrhoea, thereby putting immense strain on the public health system.Flash flooding damages crucial infrastructure such as roads and telecommunications, resulting in social and economic losses.story_article_right2Flooding of low-lying coastal areas as a result of sea-level rise results in the loss of life and human settlements, as well as destruction of mangroves and river deltas.Groundwater can become contaminated, rendering areas uninhabitable for communities reliant on borehole water for drinking and crop irrigation.Climate change affects nearly every cog in the many wheels that keep this country running: from healthcare to agriculture and forestry, to biodiversity and ecosystems, to infrastructure and human settlements, to defence, to water and sanitation.Adapting to climate change requires a response that builds and sustains South Africa's social, economic and environmental resilience as well as our emergency response capacity - and to meet our obligations we require financial support.Although we are all ultimately impacted by the effects of a changing climate, such effects are not being felt evenly around the world.South Africa, and the African continent as a whole, are at greater risk because of low levels of development and because our climate change adaptation efforts aren't on the scale of developed countries.Scaling up the provision of climate financing is critical if we are to meet the long-term objectives of the Paris agreement. In this regard, non-party stakeholders, especially business, need to do more to support and advance the Global Climate Action agenda.Molewa is minister of environmental affairs..