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This guide, produced by PARI, IIED, and SALGA, provides a framework for South African local governments to integrate land governance into the just transition. It argues that land is a strategic public resource essential for climate resilience and social justice, rather than merely a financial asset. The document outlines how municipalities can use spatial planning, inclusive governance, and tenure protection to balance the land-intensive needs of renewable energy and climate adaptation with the need to redress historical spatial inequalities from the apartheid era.

The 2026 Market Intelligence Report by GreenCape analyzes the transition of the Western Cape's agricultural sector toward sustainable, resource-efficient, and technologically enabled production. It identifies key investment opportunities in regenerative agriculture—specifically biological crop protection and biostimulants—and smart farming through digital farm management systems, driven by stricter international export regulations and a need for cost efficiency.

This report provides a comprehensive overview of the commercial agricultural sector in the Western Cape, South Africa, detailing its climatic conditions, production statistics, investment trends, and trade dynamics. It specifically examines the impact of extreme weather events, the shift toward digital agricultural investments, and the implications of new European Union sustainability directives on South African exports.

This policy brief examines climate financing mechanisms in Brazil and South Africa, focusing on carbon pricing, green bonds, green taxonomies, and central bank regulations. It argues that these two BRICS nations are well-positioned to lead the Global South in advocating for a reformed global financial architecture—specifically the restructuring of the World Bank and IMF—to ensure more affordable and equitable climate finance for developing economies.

The Municipal Performance Management Technical Digest (2025) is a guide produced by the Public Affairs Research Institute as part of the COMPACT project. It outlines the legislative frameworks, core components, and best practices for municipal performance management in South Africa, emphasizing the need for stronger community involvement to improve accountability and service delivery.

This report provides an overview of the South African electricity market, focusing on the energy services (ES) value chain, which comprises rooftop solar PV, energy storage, and energy efficiency. It details the drivers of market growth—including rolling blackouts and rising electricity costs—the roles of key industry players, and the regulatory framework governing the sector.

This case study examines the City of Cape Town's efforts between 2014 and 2024 to pioneer Small-Scale Embedded Generation (SSEG) to combat South Africa's national power crisis and loadshedding. The City implemented a series of regulatory, technical, and financial interventions—including feed-in tariffs, smart metering, and a streamlined online application process—to enable the safe integration of renewable energy into the municipal grid. By June 2024, these initiatives resulted in approximately 6,400 authorised grid-tied SSEG systems with over 140 MVA of installed capacity, while facilitating significant private investment and job creation in the local green economy.

A joint submission by the Centre for Environmental Rights (CER) and Natural Justice (NJ) providing critical feedback on the Electricity Regulation Amendment Bill [B23 – 2023]. The organizations argue that the Bill fails to sufficiently promote a just transition from fossil fuels, lacks necessary protections against the privatization of the electricity grid, and contains provisions that could undermine transparency and public participation in energy planning and procurement.

The 2023 Energy Services Market Intelligence Report by GreenCape analyzes the growth of South Africa's energy services market, driven by load shedding and rising electricity costs. Key opportunities include rooftop solar PV (projected 10 GWp by 2035), battery storage (projected R32.5 billion by 2035), and smart meters (projected R40 billion by 2035). While technology costs are falling and financing is becoming more accessible, the market faces barriers such as port inefficiencies and a shortage of technical skills.

The 2023 Water Market Intelligence Report by GreenCape identifies significant investment opportunities in South Africa's public wastewater infrastructure, specifically focusing on metropolitan municipalities. The report highlights a critical state of existing infrastructure, the potential for circular economy solutions through sludge beneficiation, and the need for energy efficiency and renewable energy interventions to combat rising costs and energy insecurity.

DHI conducted a technical review and enhancement of the City of Cape Town's Bulk Water Decision Support System (BWDSS). Key deliverables included a custom PostgreSQL timeseries provider to reduce database redundancy, a guide for operationalizing transient FEFLOW groundwater models for the Atlantis, Cape Flats, and Table Mountain aquifers, and recommendations for database maintenance and script optimization to improve system resilience and performance.

This report by GEOSS South Africa, commissioned by WWF South Africa, details the establishment of a citizen-science groundwater monitoring network in the Brackenfell residential and industrial area of the Western Cape. The project was initiated to address the unregulated increase in borehole drilling and groundwater abstraction following the 2015-2019 drought. The study combined desktop research and a field hydrocensus to identify groundwater users and deploy water level dataloggers, with the resulting data integrated into a public Groundwater Dashboard for the Table Mountain Water Source Area.

This report details the establishment of a citizen-science groundwater monitoring network in the Constantia and Bergvliet residential areas of the Western Cape, South Africa. Commissioned by WWF South Africa and executed by GEOSS South Africa, the project responded to a surge in borehole drilling following the 2015–2019 drought. The study combined desktop research and a hydrocensus of 309 properties to identify groundwater use and establish a network of five monitoring boreholes equipped with Solinst Leveloggers. Data from these loggers is integrated into a public Groundwater Dashboard to improve transparency and sustainable management of the Table Mountain Strategic Water Source Area.

This report presents a Sustainable Asset Valuation (SAVi) assessment of planned reforestation and water retention wells in Indonesia's Brantas River basin, demonstrating that nature-based infrastructure is more cost-effective than traditional reservoirs and provides significant societal benefits.

This guide and factsheet from WWF South Africa and the Anglican Church of Southern Africa provides educational resources for youth on environmental stewardship. It specifically details the three main aquifers supplying Cape Town (Table Mountain Group, Cape Flats, and Atlantis) and explains the hydrological process of groundwater filtration. The document advocates for sustainable water use and the protection of aquifers against over-extraction and pollution, framing environmental care as a spiritual mandate.

This report by the Climate Bonds Initiative examines how green and transition bonds can facilitate South Africa's shift from a coal-dependent energy system to a low-carbon economy. It analyzes the specific challenges of the South African market, the roles of major emitters like Eskom and Sasol, and provides frameworks for credible transition finance to avoid greenwashing.

This reference guide by GreenCape provides a strategic framework for water and wastewater businesses and investors seeking to enter or expand within the South African public water sector. It details the sector's governance structure, the legal requirements for public procurement, various contracting models, and strategies for forming partnerships and trialling new technologies.

This 2021 industry brief by GreenCape examines the regulatory requirements for Small Scale Embedded Generation (SSEG) in South Africa, specifically the distinction between registration with the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) and applications for connection with electricity distributors.

This 2021 industry brief by GreenCape outlines the market opportunity for circular economy solutions to manage wastewater sludge in the City of Cape Town (CCT). Driven by national and provincial landfill bans on liquid and organic wastes, the CCT is transitioning toward anaerobic digestion via Biosolids Beneficiation Facilities (BBFs) to produce treated digestate cake and recover energy and nutrients.

This 2021 GreenCape industry brief outlines waste-to-energy (WtE) options for businesses in South Africa, focusing on anaerobic digestion, thermal processes, and biofuels. It highlights the potential for reduced waste costs and improved energy security while detailing the complex legislative framework (including NEM:WA and NERSA) and the necessary project development stages from scoping to execution. The document emphasizes that while WtE can be expensive in isolation, it becomes viable when integrated as a collective solution for waste and energy management.