SUMMARY: Efforts to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from transport will most likely affect employment through a shift from internal combustion engine vehicles to electric and hybrid vehicles. The effects on employment will depend in part on the time required to move to electric vehicles in South Africa and abroad. The extent to which people within the value chain are vulnerable to job losses is influenced by the time frames for the transition to new automotive technologies, which remain highly uncertain. Vulnerable groups identified are: mechanics, partly because of their location in the informal sector, their median age, and a general lack of formal qualifications; workers in the auto industry; and taxi owners and drivers.
KEY FINDING / RECOMMENDATIONS: The paper outlines three proposals, accelerating measures to incentivise adoption of electric and hybrid vehicles; enabling taxi owners to adopt dual-fuel technologies to reduce emissions and their carbon tax costs, and ultimately to shift to electric vehicles; promoting active labour market policies, especially retraining, to assist auto mechanics to transition to new occupations if necessary.