Engineering News - 14 December 2021 by Schalk Burger

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Business Day - 13 December 2021 by Neva Makgetla (TIPS Senior Economist)

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Daily Maverick - 12 December 2021 by Ethan van Diemen

SUMMARY: Finance is essential to implement effective climate action. A just transition requires transition finance as a component of finance for climate action - to protect the adequacy of energy supply and to mitigate negative economic, employment and social impacts during transition - supporting both an accelerated phasing-out of coal and development that sustains livelihoods in affected regions like Mpumalanga. The paper aims to contribute to better understanding of ways to quantity of international and domestic finance for climate action and shift the direction of investment in South Africa. The scope of the paper has South Africa as its geographical focus. It examines finance flows at the national scale and considers international dimensions only where relevant to the country. The scope in relation to policy is broad, it considers government policy instruments across national departments and local government, a finance and fiscal tool-kit, the governance and institutional landscape that enable and direct finance flows, and policies that can guide investments in development of human and institutional capacity.

KEY FINDINGS / RECOMMENDATIONS: The paper reports that government has adopted a definition of sustainable finance, and is working on a Green Finance Taxonomy for South Africa and climate budget tagging. In assessing initial bottom-up estimates of finance needs for both mitigation and adaptation, the paper finds that the overall cumulative investment requirement for mitigation ranges from R460-760 billion. It suggests several possible ways to increase the quantity of international and domestic finance for climate action and shift the direction of flows in South Africa. The government needs to engage more proactively with international climate finance providers to scale up adaptation finance. Aligning policy is critical to avoid incoherence. Greater co-ordination, clear policy signals - for both adaption and mitigation should be sent. Possible options for coordination have been described - horizontally across different constituencies, and also across line-functions in national government, as well as vertically, across spheres of government.

SUMMARY: The article discusses the need for developing countries to chart their own course to net-zero emissions. Net-zero targets are the most recent attempt by countries to avoid the 2°C or 1.5°C increase in global temperatures and avoid a climate change crisis. A blanket approach to net-zero targets is not advised as developing counties have yet to reach their peak emissions and have less emissions per capita. Emissions reductions could also take longer in developing countries as they have other overriding challenges such as poverty and inequality. For the world to reach carbon neutrality in 2050, developed countries have to reach net zero carbon emissions earlier.

KEY FINDINGS / RECOMMENDATIONS: Net zero targets are a powerful way to signal a common cause between nations. Retaining the sense of solidarity will require that these targets be consistent with demands for climate justice and national contexts. This approach to net-zero makes for smarter policies and increase the changes of real actions. Instead of a single net zero transition, there must be space for multiple transitions, consistent with climate justice and tailored to different national contexts.

Read online: https://theconversation.com/developing-countries-need-to-chart-their-own-course-to-net-zero-emissions-159655

SUMMARY: The article discusses how net-zero emissions targets are vague and provides three ways to fix this. The details behind net-zero targets differ: some outline the reductions in CO2 emissions while negating other GHG emissions while others focus on direct emissions as opposed to supply chain emissions. Clarity on net-zero targets is essential because without more clarity, strategies behind net-zero targets cannot be understood; nor can their impact be evaluated. The article outlines three aspects which nations, companies and researchers need to clarify, these are their scope (which emissions sources and gases are covered); how they are deemed adequate and fair; and concrete road maps (which includes milestones an implementation plan and strategy to achieve and maintain targets) towards and beyond net-zero.

KEY FINDINGS: The article outlines a check list for rigours and clear net-zero plans:
Scope: What global temperature goal does this plan contribute to (to stabilise global temperature, or see it peak and decline)?; What is the target date for net zero?; Which greenhouse gases are considered?; How are greenhouse gases aggregated (GWP-100 or another metric)?; What is the extent of the emissions (over which territories, time frames or activities)?; What are the relative contributions of reductions, removals and offsets?; How will risks be managed around removals and offsets?
Fairness: What principles are being applied?; Would the global climate goal be achieved if everyone did this?; What are the consequences for others if these principles are applied universally?; How will your target affect others' capacity to achieve net zero, and their pursuit of other Sustainable Development Goals?
Roadmap: What milestones and policies will support achievement?; What monitoring and review system will be used to assess progress and revise the target?; Will net zero be maintained, or is it a step towards net negative?

SUMMARY: The study discusses the just transition transaction (JTT). The JTT mobilises blended finance to fund the accelerated phase out of coal, thereby accelerating a transition from coal to renewable energy.  The study seeks to understand the JTT, its architecture and potential to catalyse changes in the complex set of challenges facing South Africa’s electricity sector. The purpose of the study is to understand the potential of a JTT to accelerate the phase out of coal-fired power and to fund development projects. The scope of the case study is national. Its focus is on mitigation and the contribution that a just transition transaction can make in South Africa’s electricity sector. The study outlines the political economy of South Africa, details on national power producer Eskom, the relevant policies on climate and development, and the electricity sector specifically.

KEY FINDINGS / RECOMMENDATIONS: The study found that community ownership is crucial for the buy-in for renewable energy, with two types being community-owned, small-scale embedded generation and community-owned mini-grid.  Significant institutional innovation is needed to integrate community ownership with Eskom, which has had a monopoly on electricity supply. Further research should focus on Mpumalanga where community ownership models are piloted, and these will require a bottom-up, community- and locally-driven process. They also point to the need to co-develop a funding strategy with local communities, workers and municipalities, which could provide guidance of the JT Fund’s spending on development projects.

SUMMARY: The article focuses on the need to better understand how a just transition can shift development paths to achieve net zero emissions and eliminate poverty. The article begins by introducing and reviewing different theoretical approaches to theorising just transition. It builds a neo-Gramscian theory of just transition around concepts of ideology, hegemony, change agents and fundamental conditions. The coalition needs to gain broader support, establish a new cultural hegemony in support of just transitions and be able to transform the fundamental conditions of the 21st century. The article briefly considers how this better understanding can be applied to the practice of shifting development pathways. The article also presents some limitations to the study and discusses implication and further research directions.

KEY FINDINGS: The article proposes a theory of just transitions, in order to tackle the challenges of development and climate. The just transition theory is needed to shift from past development paths which brought high carbon, poverty, inequality. Building on neo-Gramscian theory, just transition is poised as an ideological element which acts as a unifying vision, around which an alliance of change agents coalesces. The article suggests that just transitions require coalitions of change agents coalescing around an ideological element - the just transition. A just transition requires organising broad front politics and finding ways to cooperate with others. This establishes a new world-view, or in neo-Gramscian terms, cultural hegemony. A just transition can provide the basis for a new social contract, ensuring human flourishing and a healthy planet. 

SUMMARY: The paper questions whether resistance to the expansion of coal can drive a just transition in South Africa. Transformative resistance requires creating "counter-power", which challenges coal on every level, builds new alliances that generate solidarity, and is potentially infused by imaginative visions of a "just transition". This could embed the anti-coal struggle in a social movement for an alternative development path. The paper examines oppositional agency in three social spaces: mining-affected communities, the environmental justice movement, and the labour movement.

KEY FINDINGS: Priorities differ for each social space: job losses for labour, dispossession of land and livelihoods for rural communities, and extractivism for the environmental justice movement. Anti-coal initiatives have the potential to build a "counter-power" which challenges inequality, and is potentially infused by visions of another world beyond coal. This could cohere into a vision of a just transition that is transformative.