This white paper presents the South African government’s vision for an effective climate change response and the long-term transition to a climate-resilient and lower-carbon economy and society. South Africa’s response to climate change has two main objectives: 1) effectively manage inevitable climate change impacts through interventions that build and sustain social, economic and environmental resilience and emergency response capacity; and 2) make a fair contribution to the global effort to stabilise greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations in the atmosphere within a timeframe that enables economic, social and environmental development to proceed in a sustainable manner.