Green Finance

As the projects coordinator at Indalo Inclusive South Africa, a nonprofit that champions green entrepreneurship, Shamiela Reid manages and coordinates the climate policy and just energy transition portfolios. She was involved in the Africa Youth Mobilisation for COP Campaign, which developed the first Africa Youth Climate Action Plan and the First Assessment Report, which were launched at COP27 and COP28, respectively. Shamiela is Indalo’s contact point to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. She highlights Indalo’s just energy projects in Dipaleseng local municipality. The projects involve affected communities in participatory processes that lead to outcomes that give effect to procedural justice in the Framework for a Just Transition. People had expressed reservations about the energy transition because they had not been part of discussions on the decommissioning and repurposing of Grootvlei power station. They asked to be taught about climate change and the just transition. After this they requested support to develop community-based innovations, which they presented to potential funders. Six innovations were tested and refined. The innovations have been included in the Dipaleseng local municipality’s Integrated Development Plan for further public consultation and it has committed to make land available for implementation. The project has been recognised in local and global fora as a best practice for a procedurally just transitions energy project and Indalo has been asked to replicate this project in Komati, the site of a decommissioned coal-fired power station.

Educational Qualifications

• Bachelor of Social Science in Environmental and Geographical Science, Sociology and Gender Studies, University of Cape Town  
• Postgraduate Diploma in Public and Development Sector Monitoring and Evaluation, University of the Witwatersrand 

Greatest achievements:

1. More than 250 people and social partners benefited from the Dipaleseng Just Energy Transition Projects. 
2. Based on the workshop evaluation results, 86% of the participants strongly agreed that the workshops increased their understanding of climate change and the just transition and the challenges and opportunities it presented. 
3. Furthermore 92% of the participants indicated that they were interested in learning more about climate change and the just energy transition. 
4. Six community-based innovations were co-created, tested and refined by community members and are currently undergoing formalisation and establishing their social ownership and governance structure. 
5. The six community-based innovations have been included in the Dipaleseng local municipality’s Integrated Development Plan for further public consultation.
6. The political leadership of Dipaleseng has committed to supporting the innovation by making land available for implementation once the innovations are ready to be rolled out.

What advice would you give to future generations?

We are already experiencing the transitional and physical effects of climate change, and although they pose the most pressing development problems of our time, they also present significant opportunities, particularly in a country like South Africa where poverty, unemployment and inequality are on the rise. My message is simple: Don’t lose sight of these opportunities, but realising them will require a collective effort from all of us.