The devastation in the province holds minimal risks to food security, in the near term at least. (Photo by RAJESH JANTILAL/AFP via Getty Images)
The recent severe flooding that has devastated KwaZulu-Natal shows that climate change will not unfold gradually but is instead part of South Africa’s “current lived reality”, according to Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment Barbara Creecy.
“The key issue that we [as the government] have understood as we’ve looked at the floods … is that climate change can no longer be conceptualised as a slow-onset event that is going to start impacting on all of us at some stage in the next decade and a half,” she said.
“It’s part of our current lived reality and therefore the questions that we’ve got to be looking at is how do we embed all the … planning processes that we’ve been talking about, and more importantly, in government budgets.”
Creecy was speaking at the Presidential Climate Commission’s national multi-stakeholder conference on the Just Transition, a first-of-its-kind conference held in Sandton last week. The two-day event brought together hundreds of delegates from communities, NGOs, business, labour unions and government, who set out shared priorities for South Africa’s urgent, just and equitable transition away from fossil fuels towards a greener, safer and more inclusive low-carbon economy.
Understanding the just transition
The government had identified two main objectives in understanding the transition, Creecy explained. “The first is how to ensure that as we enter into this transition towards a climate-resilient society and a low-carbon economy, that we make sure that workers and communities involved in vulnerable sectors of the economy are not those who will be carrying the overall burden of the transition.
“The second issue we have discussed at a cabinet level is how do we conceptualise and use this transition in a manner that helps us to solve what we call the wicked problems of inequality, poverty and unemployment.”
As the transition will affect more than seven sectors of the economy, it needs to be understood that while the government might be playing a fairly central role in the energy transition, for example, that civil society, organised labour and business will be the major players in many of the other transitions, Creecy said.
Climate change worsening South Africa’s problems
That the impacts of climate change are already being felt across South Africa was one of the key messages that arose from the conference, the commission said. “The recent devastating floods in KwaZulu-Natal put these climate impacts in sharp focus, causing catastrophic loss of life and widespread destruction.”
Climate change exacerbates South Africa’s triple challenges of poverty, unemployment, and inequality, it said. “A just transition is therefore about seizing opportunities and managing the risks associated with climate change, with an overarching focus on improving the lives and livelihoods of South Africans, particularly those most affected.”
This is about “putting people first” and at the centre of decision-making, as the country transitions towards a more inclusive, resilient, and sustainable economy and society.
Architecture in place to support transition
The government, Creecy said, has put in place much of the architecture to support the transition including its revised National Determined Contribution – the cornerstone of South Africa’s climate change response.
“We’ve already started to work on the question of sectoral emission targets and in due course, we will be doing actual industry-based emission targets,” she said. “We have in place a carbon tax and we have deposited with the National Assembly the Climate Change Bill.”
The bill, she said, will give the regulatory authority to all of the processes that need to be undertaken, including making the Presidential Climate Commission a statutory body. “We have already developed the national adaptation strategy and our department has worked with every district municipality and every metro in the country to develop adaptation strategies.”
To succeed, the transition must be procedurally just. “So, it’s not just a question of saying that the end point must include these communities and these workers. [They] must be a central component in developing the concept of what is a just transition … The government agreed to equitable sharing of risks and opportunities … making sure that we are involved in reskilling and upskilling but also in the conscious processes of the development of new industries and new value chains.”
The transition must be restorative, Creecy said. “We understand that if we are going to ensure access to land, to food, to basic services, proper health care and good education, then we are not going to be able to achieve these without fundamental changes in broader economic inclusion and broader economic ownership.”
Load-shedding is an equaliser
South Africa is “running out of time”, and is already plagued by energy poverty and inaccessibility, Bulelwa Makalima-Ngewana, the director of the Open Society Foundation South Africa, told delegates. “I cannot actually tell you what an equaliser these blackouts from Eskom are, as irritating as they are because whether you’re rich or you’re poor, you’ve got the same amount of emotion when those lights go out.
“The problem though is in the rural areas, in the most disadvantaged areas of our cities, people can’t afford alternatives. Even when the lights are on, energy is unaffordable. There’s energy poverty, energy inaccessibility – people who are actually living where coal is mined cannot afford the energy they produce with their own sweat,” she said.
In his keynote address, Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula said South Africa must continue to phase out coal in a carefully structured and planned manner. “This means repurposing and repowering existing coal plants, and creating new livelihoods for those workers and communities most impacted by the change,” he said.
Ashley Benjamin, the labour representative for Fedusa, told delegates: “How can we carefully plan [the transition away from coal] if currently the Nelson Mandela Bay metro’s combined dam levels is below 19%? How can we plan carefully if R50 billion damage was caused a month ago to lives, property and infrastructure in KwaZulu-Natal? We need new ideas, a just transition fund, a government that is caring, a social compact based on decent work, social justice and inclusivity …
“How can we talk about a just transition when our own government is fighting poor communities in coastal regions of the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal by protecting foreign mine companies that want to mine in those poor areas while there is evidence that it’s a disaster for the environment and for the livelihoods of poor people? What just transition is that?”
There must be an equitable distribution of risks, Mbulaheni Mbodi, a commissioner who represents labour, told delegates. “If we say that the just energy transition should be people-centred, we should look at our socio-economic challenges and say who are the majority of our people? They are poor, disenfranchised, unemployed and in a very unequal society … Right now, the risks of floods and all other climate devastation are really facing the poor and unemployed.”
Embodying justice
Among the conference’s key messages is that the transition must embody all aspects of justice, the commission said. Workers, communities, and small businesses must be empowered and supported in the transition, defining their own development pathways and livelihoods.
“We must ensure universal access to excellent quality water, nutritious food, and health services as part of an equitable transition. While the just transition conversation has, thus far, mostly focused on the just energy transition, participants stressed the importance of broadening the scope to include food, water, and health security,” according to the commission.
The current draft Just Transition Framework, which provides a template for the transition, will be updated based on comments received from all stakeholder groups over the past several months, and at the multistakeholder conference, before being submitted to the cabinet for consideration in mid-2022.
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