Cape Town Climate Week Shows That Climate Action is For Everyone

To round off August and kick off September, Cape Town Climate Week brings together activists, community leaders, students, and citizens for a week-long lineup of events exploring grassroots solutions to the climate and social crises that plague both South Africa and the world.

Tackling issues like climate change, spatial & gendered injustice, and migration through a series of community events, Climate Week aims to give participants the tools to enact change and build grassroots action that improves Cape Town for all. Here’s everything citizens need to know.

About Cape Town Climate Week

Climate change, spatial & gendered injustice, food and water insecurity, migration, and South Africa’s broken energy system are issues with similar causal links, each making the others worse. For Cape Town Climate Week, African Climate Alliance and other partners show that action isn’t reserved for overzealous activists or professional academics, but ordinary citizens too.

In its fifth year, participants journey through different areas of the city to witness how these issues are connected, spanning eight events over six days on a variety of topics. While these problems often seem too big to tackle, solutions like alternative transport, improved urban planning, reliable energy systems, food growing, water resilience, and gender-inclusive policy are possible, even at the grassroots level.

This year’s edition comes at a necessary time, with the city bracing for the impacts of a record-breaking El Niño (causing extreme climate disturbances) and after a winter of devastating floods. With the addition of housing and food insecurity growing among the Mother City’s most vulnerable groups, it’s a sensitive time for the city and its people.

At this time, Cape Town Climate Week asks how change can be built from the ground up, and how ordinary citizens can come together to transform the systems leading to climate-based, social, and economic crises.

Climate Week 2026 Programme

Train of Thought

A train ride from Cape Town Station to Khayelitsha, exploring how transport shapes everyday life in the city. Along the way, fellow riders from different corners of Cape Town will share stories and lived experiences that reveal how housing, infrastructure, and inequality are deeply connected.

Free to RSVP.

When: Monday, 31 August 2026 | 9.30am – 11.30am
Where: Meet at Cape Town Station, 1 Adderley St, Cape Town City Centre

Undoing Spatial Apartheid

An interactive workshop exploring the intersections of climate change, housing, and spatial injustice in Cape Town.

Free to RSVP.

When: Monday, 31 August 2026 | 11.30am – 3pm
Where: Isivivana Centre, 8 Mzala St, Khayelitsha (transport back to Bertha House, Mowbray available)

Energy Justice Climate Cafe

A Climate Café which explores energy justice and the power behind South Africa’s energy system through an interactive exhibition, lino-cutting, collective discussion, and creative activities.

Free to RSVP.

When: Tuesday, 1 September 2026 | 10am – 3pm
Where: Guga S’thebe, Langa

We Can’t See the Sunset – Movie Screening

The energy crisis has a cost, and it isn’t paid equally. Join us for a screening of We Can’t See the Sunset, followed by a panel discussion exploring energy justice, extraction, and community resistance.

Free to RSVP.

When: Tuesday, 1 September 2026 | 5.30pm – 7.30pm
Where: Bertha House, 69 Main Rd, Mowbray

Sowing Seeds for System Change

A food justice gathering exploring how environmental racism and unequal food systems shape life in Cape Town. Engage with a seed library exhibition, watch short films on food sovereignty and climate justice, and hear from local voices in a panel discussion.

Free to RSVP.

When: Wednesday, 2 September 2026 | 10am – 1pm
Where: Bertha House, 69 Main Rd, Mowbray

Ripples of Change

Engage in a water mapping workshop, explore the Philippi Horticultural Area, and reflect on what water justice means in practice.

Free to RSVP.

When: Thursday, 3 September 2026 | 10am – 2.30pm
Where: Meet at Bertha House; transport to Vegkop Farm, 195 Schaapkraal Rd, Philippi

Borders and Belonging

A walking tour and teach-in exploring the intersecting realities of gender and migration justice through histories of land dispossession, forced removals, and migrant and refugee organising.

Free to RSVP.

Where: Friday, 4 September 2026 | 11am – 2.30pm
Where: Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation

Solidarity Picnic

The final event of Cape Town Climate Week. After six days of conversation, learning, and organising, join a picnic at Arderne Gardens to gather in community, share food, stories, and spoken word, and imagine intersectional justice across borders.

Free to RSVP.

When: Saturday, 5 September 2026 | 11am – 2pm
Where: Arderne Gardens, 222 Main Rd, Claremont