By Blessing Manale
Over the past year, our country continued to be the negative impacts of climate change, with floods, droughts, and extreme weather conditions experienced across the country, all bearing the mark of a changing climate – expected to worsen over time.
The evidence is clear that significant transformations are needed across all sectors of our economy to tackle climate change. These changes must be made in ways that improve the lives and livelihoods of all South Africans, with a particular focus on those most impacted in the transition. This is the departure point for all our work at the Presidential Climate Commission.
The President of the Republic of South Africa established the Presidential Climate Commission (PCC), a multi-stakeholder advisory body to (1) advise on climate change response and (2) support a just transition to a low-carbon climate-resilient economy and society.
The PCC’s core mandate is to facilitate consensus between social partners around a just transition, aiming to build a shared perspective on what it means to achieve a just transition and what it will take to get there. In delivering this mandate, the PCC has focused on deepening the evidence base for just and fair climate action, promoting understanding through targeted communications, and engaging with all stakeholder groups, openly and transparently.
In executing this mandate, the PCC conducts evidence-based research and communicates findings transparently; and works in an open and transparent manner with all stakeholders, with the aim of building social consensus around the complex and challenging decisions required to successfully navigate a just transition.
The composition of the Commission is diverse and representative, with a multiplicity of stakeholder voices, and a wide knowledge base and ability. This has allowed the Commission to rapidly develop a reputation for independence and credibility, trusted by multiple constituencies; and able to convene important national conversations.
In the past year the PCC focused on five priorities: (1) finalising a framework to guide a just and equitable transition; (2) building consensus between social partners to support this transition; (3) defining a new and more sustainable electricity mix for the country; (4) providing advice on improving South Africa’s resilience in the context of a changing climate; and (5) mobilising financial flows towards South Africa’s just transition, including supporting the development of the Just Energy Transition Investment Plan (JET-IP).
Developing climate resilience solutions must be carefully considered according to the lived experiences of the communities we aim to positively influence.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is clear in that if decisions are made in silos, we risk maladaptation and ancillary harm. Rather, we need to make decisions based on inputs from multiple sectors, while considering a multiplicity of futures, and increase the chances of those decisions resulting in wide-ranging benefits.
The PCC continues to traverse the country, facilitating community and stakeholder engagements on South Africa’s Just Transition and to this end we have put in significant effort to include and involve specific communities. However, it has realised the importance of building trust and sustaining this trust and has committed to returning to these communities.
A large and integral part of South Africa’s history is embedded in the rich appreciation of the importance of social dialogue.
Subsequently, social dialogue has been a foundational principle that has guided the development of the 1996 Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, policies, and laws. These have encouraged and facilitated participatory governance, participatory justice, and active public participation, which are essential to building and advancing democracy.
The five principles of meaningful engagement are information sharing, consultation, joint problem solving, negotiation, and joint decision-making, tools which have been used since the advent of democracy by the government of South Africa to enhance participatory governance.
There is a clear need for improving transparency, governance, and justice in the South African electricity system. South Africa’s current electricity crisis requires interventions in the short term without comprising long-term access, cost and the most climate compatible energy mix.
Participatory governance can only be advanced by including stakeholders in the consultation and decision-making process. These engagements have boded well in facilitating the PCCs mandate. A myriad of views has been raised during these engagements by communities. Including the call for a bottom-up approach to engaging communities so that all communities and sectors are reached and are integral to the decision-making process, and that trust needs to be built with communities.
With the vision and milestones for achieving a just transition increasingly concrete in South Africa, it is essential to develop a process of tracking progress towards those goals. South Africa has experience in tracking progress towards climate and development goals, which the PCC will build upon, with a strong focus on evaluation, ensuring that the tracking work improves policy- and decision-making.
As part of this process, we will also comprehensively map and track the flow the climate finance towards our just transition goals, and produce a biennial Climate Finance Landscape Report, together with a State of Climate Finance Report.
Finally, the Commission will continue to build, as we believe we should, a new model for inclusive and collective decision-making, incorporating the individuals, workers, and communities that are most impacted in the transition.
Blessing Manale is the head of Communications, Presidential Climate Commission.
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