The political economy of decarbonisation: exploring the dynamics of South Africa’s electricity sector

South Africa’s coal-dominated electricity sector, a key feature of the country’s minerals-energy complex, is in crisis and subject to change. This offers potential opportunities for decarbonisation. Despite positive examples of decarbonisation in South Africa’s electricity sector, such as a procurement programme for renewable energy, there are structural path dependencies linked to coal-fired generation and security of supply. Decarbonisation goes far beyond what is technologically or even economically feasible, to encompass a complexity of political, social and economic factors. Meanwhile, decision-making in electricity is highly politicised and lack of transparency and power struggles in the policy sphere pose key challenges. Such power struggles are reflected in national debates over which technologies should be prioritised and the institutional arrangements that should facilitate them

Energy poverty in South Africa: widening access to basic energy services

This report contains a description and analysis of the current energy consumption patterns of poor households in South Africa, and proposes a range of policies which can improve significantly the access of the poor to adequate and affordable energy services. It draws on the work of the Energy Policy Research and Training Project, a two-year policy research project involving some twenty person-years of effort, being conducted at the Energy for Development Research Centre (EDRC)

A climate club to decarbonize the global steel industry

Decarbonizing global steel production requires a fundamental transformation. A sectoral climate club, which goes beyond tariffs and involves deep transnational cooperation, can facilitate this transformation by addressing technical, economic and political uncertainties

Geographic Information Systems for electrification: scoping study

Because this is a short scoping study with only 15 days allocated to its production the initial discussions with the most important stakeholders and the round 1 of interviews were used to provide a tight focus for the project. The main area that has been chosen as the focus is institutional issues relevant to GIS for electrification as follows: 1. Access to data for GIS 2. Data maintenance 3. Financial and intellectual property aspects related to the above three issues. 4. In addition to these institutional issues the project will attempt to give an indication of the extent of agreement on data content in two ways. Firstly, a list of the most basic data required over the first phase of use of GIS for electrification policy and implementation. Secondly, a list of data required in the subsequent phase which may require more detailed data

Geographic Information Systems for electrification: scoping study

Because this is a short scoping study with only 15 days allocated to its production the initial discussions with the most important stakeholders and the round 1 of interviews were used to provide a tight focus for the project. The main area that has been chosen as the focus is institutional issues relevant to GIS for electrification as follows: 1. Access to data for GIS 2. Data maintenance 3. Financial and intellectual property aspects related to the above three issues. 4. In addition to these institutional issues the project will attempt to give an indication of the extent of agreement on data content in two ways. Firstly, a list of the most basic data required over the first phase of use of GIS for electrification policy and implementation. Secondly, a list of data required in the subsequent phase which may require more detailed data

The Energy Politics of South Africa

This chapter explores key processes within South Africa’s electricity sector that evolved under the presidency of Jacob Zuma from his inauguration in 2009 until he was forced out of office in early 2018. These processes include the introduction of a national planning process for electricity; the implementation of a procurement program for privately generated renewable electricity; and a highly controversial nuclear procurement program, since scrapped following Zuma’s departure. The chapter’s exploration takes place within the context of a decade of “state capture” and corruption. Drawing from a wide range of literature on South Africa’s energy policy, it advances perspectives of the “minerals-energy complex” (Fine and Rustomjee 1996), which has been a dominant framework for the analysis of the country’s political economy and its electricity sector. The chapter concludes with a research agenda that brings together the literature on sociotechnical transitions with that of analyses of the nature of the state

Energy poverty in South Africa: Widening access to basic energy services.

This report contains a description and analysis of the current energy consumption patterns of poor households in South Africa, and proposes a range of policies which can improve significantly the access of the poor to adequate and affordable energy services. It draws on the work of the Energy Policy Research and Training Project, a two-year policy research project involving some twenty person-years of effort, being conducted at the Energy for Development Research Centre (EDRC).The authors would like to acknowledge the contributions of all the team members of the Energy Policy Research and Training Project, much of whose work is reflected in this report. Also, we would like to thank Eve MacNamara for her assistance with editing and layout of the final document

DDPP Phase II - Reports

The Deep Decarbonization Pathways Project (DDPP), an initiative of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) and the Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI), aims to demonstrate how countries can transform their energy systems by 2050 in order to achieve a low-carbon economy and significantly reduce the global risk of catastrophic climate change. Built upon a rigorous accounting of national circumstances, the DDPP defines transparent pathways supporting the decarbonization of energy systems while respecting the specifics of national political economy and the fulfillment of domestic development priorities. The project currently comprises 16 Country Research Teams, composed of leading research institutions from countries representing about 70% of global GHG emissions and at very different stages of development. These 16 countries are: Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and the United States