‘Energetic’ Dialogues in South Africa: The EU Example

This policy brief examines South Africa's energy transition and its strategic international partnerships. It highlights the country's reliance on coal while pursuing a target of 30% clean energy for new capacity by 2025. The document details South Africa's role as a regional energy hub via the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP) and its complex relationship with the EU, which balances broad strategic partnerships with specific bilateral cooperation and South-South engagements (BRICS, IBSA).

• South Africa is diversifying its international partnerships to balance its relations with Northern partners and emerging economies. While maintaining ties with the EU, the country has increased engagement in South-South cooperation forums, specifically BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) and IBSA (India, Brazil, South Africa).
• Coal remains a primary energy source and a major export for South Africa, ranking as the country's fourth largest export earner. However, the Department of Energy (DoE) has set a target for clean energy to provide 30% of all new generation capacity by 2025, with a focus on gas and renewable energy sources (RES) over nuclear energy.
• Eskom dominates the South African electricity market as the licensed Transmission Network Service Provider, supplying 96% of the country's electricity. It is ranked as the seventh largest utility globally by generation capacity and ninth by sales.
• South Africa acts as a regional energy hub and leader within the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP), a SADC initiative established in 1995. Eskom provides nearly 80% of the total regional energy demands.
• The relationship between South Africa and the EU in the energy sector is characterized by a mix of formal strategic partnerships and bilateral preferences. While the Africa–EU Energy Partnership (AEEP) and the sixth South Africa–EU summit (July 2013) promote broad cooperation on rural electrification and clean coal, South Africa often prefers bilateral relations with specific European countries for targeted needs, such as solar energy from Spain.

APA

Maupin, A. (2014). ‘Energetic’ Dialogues in South Africa: The EU Example. South African Institute of International Affairs. https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Policy-Briefing-85.pdf

Chicago

Maupin, Agathe. ‘Energetic’ Dialogues in South Africa: The EU Example. South African Institute of International Affairs, 2014. https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Policy-Briefing-85.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Maupin |first1=Agathe |title=‘Energetic’ Dialogues in South Africa: The EU Example |publisher=South African Institute of International Affairs |date=March 2014 |url=https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Policy-Briefing-85.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{maupin2014energetic, author = {Maupin, Agathe}, title = {{‘Energetic’ Dialogues in South Africa: The EU Example}}, institution = {South African Institute of International Affairs}, year = {2014}, month = mar, url = {https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Policy-Briefing-85.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }