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The document details a partnership between the South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA) and Jasoro Consulting to integrate youth voices into South Africa's APRM review. Using Hart's 'Ladder of Participation', the project moved beyond tokenism to treat youth as equal partners in decision-making. The process involved nearly 200 young people nationwide who identified key governance issues, including climate change and land rights. The authors derive five key lessons for policy actors: early consultation, recognizing youth as experts in their own experience, ensuring diverse representation, centering youth voices, and providing learning opportunities.

The submission argues that South Africa's draft NDC targets are insufficiently ambitious, aligning with a 3°C temperature increase rather than the 1.5°C or 2°C goals necessary to protect public health. It highlights the severe health risks posed by climate change in South Africa, including drought, heat, and infectious diseases, and notes that coal-fired power stations cause over 2,200 deaths annually. The authors advocate for a 'green' recovery from COVID-19, urging a shift from fossil fuel investments toward renewable energy and a commitment to phase out coal by 2034. The document proposes specific co-benefit policies in energy (e.g., adopting the Climate Justice Charter), food and agriculture (e.g., incentivizing urban agriculture), and transportation (e.g., electrifying public transit) to simultaneously reduce emissions and improve health outcomes.

The report evaluates the Paterson Park Precinct's building infrastructure in Johannesburg, comparing a business-as-usual (BAU) scenario with a green building scenario across different climate pathways (RCP 2.6, 4.5, and 8.5). Using the SAVi tool and Copernicus Climate Change Service data, the analysis finds that green buildings significantly reduce life-cycle costs through lower energy and maintenance expenditures and reduced greenhouse gas emissions. Climate change primarily increases energy costs and GHG emissions for both scenarios, though the green design remains more cost-effective. Additionally, the report identifies solar PV installations as a highly profitable investment in South Africa, particularly when accounting for electricity price inflation.

The assessment finds that nature-based infrastructure (stream renaturalization) is the most cost-efficient and climate-resilient option, providing the highest net benefits primarily through avoided flood damages and additional water supply. While grey infrastructure (concrete culverts) has the highest upfront costs and provides no environmental co-benefits, nature-based solutions maintain superior performance across various climate scenarios, although they are more labour-intensive to maintain.

The document examines Johannesburg's transition toward a 'safe city' through the Integrated Intelligence Operations Centre (IIOC), which pools CCTV networks and AI analytics. It argues that these systems, often developed via public-private partnerships with firms like IBM and Huawei, lack transparency and threaten civil liberties. The author contends that surveillance does not address the root causes of crime—poverty and inequality—and recommends banning 'nerve centres' and video analytics in public spaces in favor of community-led, low-tech safety solutions.

The submission by Natural Justice (NJ) evaluates the draft Expropriation Bill, 2020, which aims to replace the 1975 Act and allow for expropriation without compensation in South Africa. NJ argues that the Bill fails to account for climate change and agro-ecological constraints, which are critical given South Africa's limited arable land. The organization expresses concern over the state-centric approach to expropriation, the potential for state-owned land to be shielded from reform, and the risk that state-subsidized land held by disadvantaged people could be expropriated for nil compensation. NJ recommends the creation of an ombudsperson to represent public interests, the adoption of a Land Redistribution Framework Act for better oversight, and the implementation of a Land Records Act to protect the tenure of millions of people with unregistered rights.

A summary of the High Court judgment in Featherbrooke Homeowners Association NPC v Mogale City Local Municipality & Others, where the court found that state entities failed in their duty to manage stormwater, infringing on the constitutional right to a healthy and safe environment.

The report analyzes the South African urban water market, highlighting a critical funding gap of approximately R33 billion per annum for water and sanitation infrastructure. It identifies three primary investment opportunities: reducing non-revenue water (NRW), implementing non-sewered sanitation systems (NSSS), and wastewater sludge beneficiation. While the Western Cape has planned sufficient supply projects to ensure a surplus, the national context remains water-stressed, with a projected 10% gap between supply and demand by 2030. Key barriers to investment include municipal financial insolvency, lack of technical capacity, and a lack of locally demonstrated technologies.

The research argues that while food insecurity provides the motivation for urban unrest, the actual occurrence of collective action is contingent on the presence of organizational networks and the level of state repression. Using a combination of cross-national data from urban Africa (1990–2014) and individual-level survey data from Johannesburg, the author finds that food insecurity increases the likelihood of unrest, particularly demonstrations and strikes. However, the study challenges the notion that food is a uniquely potent driver of unrest compared to other living expenses and finds no evidence that food insecurity leads specifically to more violent behavior.

The report argues that a significant 'urban services divide' exists in the global South, where over 1.2 billion people lack reliable access to housing, water, sanitation, energy, and transport. This divide creates a cycle of poverty and environmental degradation. To break this cycle, the authors propose seven transformations: prioritizing the vulnerable in infrastructure design, partnering with alternative service providers, improving local data through community engagement, supporting informal workers, innovating financing and subsidies, promoting transparent land management, and creating diverse governance coalitions. The report emphasizes that these shifts can yield cascading economic and environmental benefits, including reduced GHG emissions and improved public health.

This filing notice and updated practice note, submitted by the Centre for Environmental Rights (CER) on December 8, 2020, outlines an appeal in the High Court of South Africa (Gauteng Division, Pretoria). The appeal challenges a Water Tribunal decision that dismissed a previous appeal against the granting of a water use licence (WUL) to Atha-Africa Ventures (Pty) Ltd by the Department of Water and Sanitation.

The paper argues that while the South African government showed increased responsiveness during the Covid-19 crisis, the pandemic exacerbated existing inequalities, food poverty, and state violence. It highlights a divide between a government-business coalition and a marginalized civil society, while noting that corruption in PPE and food relief procurement continued to undermine public trust.

The policy brief proposes restructuring South African governance by establishing a National Strategy and Development Council (NSDC) in the presidency. This body would transform existing cabinet clusters into directorates to ensure policy continuity and prevent ministers from making uncoordinated, sector-specific decisions. Specifically, it suggests an International Relations Trade and Security (IRTS) directorate supported by an independent, non-governmental Council on International Relations and Cooperation (CIRC) to provide expert advice and research, moving away from a 'party-state' model toward a disciplined 'developmental state'.

The workshop, hosted by the South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA) on 22 September 2020, focused on the role of civil society and youth in the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) process. Participants discussed the importance of inclusive governance, the necessity of a youth-focused civil society submission for South Africa's 2021 review, and shared lessons from APRM processes in Namibia, Botswana, and Zambia. Key discussions highlighted the need for civil society to demand accountability and the establishment of the APRM Youth Network to mainstream young people into governance reviews.

The Sub-national Climate Finance Initiative (SnCF) is designed as a blended finance private equity fund paired with a grant-funded Technical Assistance Facility (TAF) to support mid-sized sustainable infrastructure in developing countries. The Fund targets a total raise of USD 750 million, consisting of a USD 150 million concessional tranche and USD 600 million in commercial capital, aiming to invest in sustainable energy, waste and sanitation, and nature-based solutions. The TAF, targeting USD 28 million, focuses on project preparation, impact certification via Gold Standard, and local government capacity building. The initiative aims to mobilize up to USD 3.8 billion in total finance, with a target of 35-50 projects across up to 20 countries. Key target markets identified include Chile, South Africa, North Macedonia, Mexico, and Jordan. The Fund projects a net IRR of 9.4% for commercial investors and 5.4% for the concessional tranche, with a goal to avoid 77 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent over the infrastructure lifetime.

The document details how authoritative climate data from the Copernicus Climate Data Store (CDS) is integrated into the SAVi Buildings model. It provides a literature review on climate impacts on buildings—covering energy demand, rainwater harvesting, and climate hazards—and explains the methodology for translating this data into performance indicators. Simulation results demonstrate that using CDS climate data significantly alters projections compared to 'no climate' scenarios, specifically showing a 23-fold increase in forecasted rainwater harvesting yields and a reduction in projected energy expenditures for heating and cooling.

The document details how climate variables from the Copernicus Climate Data Store (CDS) are integrated into the SAVi Energy model to quantify the impact of climate change on various power generation technologies. It provides a comprehensive literature review of how variables like temperature, wind speed, and precipitation affect the load factor and thermal efficiency of coal, gas, nuclear, biomass, hydro, solar, and wind power, as well as the efficiency of the electricity grid. The report includes a simulation for Johannesburg, South Africa, demonstrating that rising temperatures and changing precipitation patterns can significantly reduce the load factor and revenues for thermal and hydropower assets, while potentially increasing the load factor for wind energy.

The document details how climate indicators from the Copernicus Climate Data Store (CDS)—including precipitation, temperature, and evaporation—are integrated into the SAVi Irrigation model. It provides a literature review on the impacts of temperature and precipitation on crop yields and water requirements, establishes the methodology for calculating net and total irrigation requirements, and presents simulation results for Johannesburg under the IPSL RCP8.5 scenario, projecting a 23% increase in net irrigation requirements by 2090-2100.

The document details how climate indicators from the Copernicus Climate Data Store (CDS) are integrated into the SAVi tool to improve the analysis of infrastructure resilience. It covers a literature review of climate impacts on energy, irrigation, wastewater, buildings, roads, and nature-based infrastructure, providing specific equations to link climate variables to asset performance. The report includes simulation results for Johannesburg, South Africa, demonstrating how climate variables like temperature and precipitation affect load factors, thermal efficiency, and maintenance costs, ultimately impacting the economic viability and societal costs of these assets.

The document details how authoritative climate data from the Copernicus CDS is integrated into the SAVi model for nature-based infrastructure. It provides a literature review on the impacts of precipitation, vegetation, and temperature on assets like green roofs, wetlands, and urban forests. The report demonstrates the model's application through simulations in Johannesburg, showing how temperature affects phosphorus removal in wetlands and how increasing vegetation cover can mitigate heat-related labor productivity losses.