Policy Brief A call to action: Moving towards holistic climate-responsive budgeting

The policy brief examines the shortcomings of South Africa's current climate finance landscape, specifically the Just Energy Transition Investment Plan (JET-IP) and the initial implementation of Climate Budget Tagging (CBT). It argues that current efforts suffer from horizontal and vertical incoherence, limited transparency regarding debt and private financing, and a top-down approach that marginalizes social justice and adaptation needs. To remedy this, the author proposes a comprehensive Climate-Responsive Budgeting (CRB) framework that integrates positive and negative expenditure tagging, revenue tracking, gender-responsive budgeting, and regular Climate Public Expenditure and Institutional Reviews (CPEIR).

• South Africa's climate policy suffers from horizontal incoherence between government departments and a failure of vertical coordination regarding ground-level implementation. Specifically, the Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) contradicts national climate goals and Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) by supporting increased coal and gas use.
• The Just Energy Transition Investment Plan (JET-IP) faces a significant financing gap, with an estimated investment requirement of R1.5 trillion over five years (2023–2027), while international commitments under the JETP deal have fluctuated and were revised down to $12.8 billion.
• There is a critical lack of transparency and accountability in the JET-IP, particularly concerning the tracking of sovereign debt and private sector financing. The current top-down consultation process has been criticized for 'ring-fencing' priority sectors like green hydrogen before stakeholder input was sought.
• South Africa has begun piloting Climate Budget Tagging (CBT) using weighted Rio Markers across national, provincial, and municipal levels, focusing initially on transport, forestry and fisheries, and water and sanitation. However, the current application is limited and lacks sufficient public information.
• To be effective, CBT must evolve beyond tracking positive expenditures to include 'negative expenditures' (spending that harms climate goals), revenue tracking (such as carbon taxes), and social and gender-responsive dimensions to avoid becoming a purely technocratic exercise.
• The document recommends the implementation of a Climate Public Expenditure and Institutional Review (CPEIR) every three years to provide a diagnostic baseline and evaluate whether spending aligns with climate commitments.

APA

Institute for Economic Justice (2023). Policy Brief A call to action: Moving towards holistic climate-responsive budgeting. https://iej.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/CAAP_A-call-to-action_Policy-Brief_Final3-1.pdf

Chicago

Institute for Economic Justice. Policy Brief A call to action: Moving towards holistic climate-responsive budgeting. 2023. https://iej.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/CAAP_A-call-to-action_Policy-Brief_Final3-1.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Institute for Economic Justice |title=Policy Brief A call to action: Moving towards holistic climate-responsive budgeting |date=2023 |url=https://iej.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/CAAP_A-call-to-action_Policy-Brief_Final3-1.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{instituteforeconomicjustice2023policy, author = {{Institute for Economic Justice}}, title = {{Policy Brief A call to action: Moving towards holistic climate-responsive budgeting}}, institution = {Institute for Economic Justice}, year = {2023}, url = {https://iej.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/CAAP_A-call-to-action_Policy-Brief_Final3-1.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }