Search Climate Insights Directory

The assessment evaluates the viability of nature-based solutions (NbS) in Johannesburg's Jukskei River catchment, including riparian restoration and urban tree planting. Using the SAVi methodology, the report finds that these interventions are economically viable, with a discounted benefit-to-cost ratio (BCR) of 3.06 and cumulative net benefits of ZAR 152 million from 2025 to 2050. The most significant benefits are avoided health costs from water pollution and avoided infrastructure damage from flooding.

The report examines a diverse array of transition mechanisms, including Just Energy Transition Partnerships (JETPs), national sectoral processes in countries like Germany and Chile, and first-mover alliances such as the Powering Past Coal Alliance. It highlights the necessity of national ownership, structured social dialogue, and blended finance to overcome political gridlock and ensure a just transition. The analysis reveals significant gaps in international support, particularly a shortfall in grants and concessional finance for Global South countries and a lack of coordinated global guidance for designing transition roadmaps.

The document outlines a structured approach to the global transition away from fossil fuels (TAFF), emphasizing that current production and consumption plans are misaligned with 1.5°C pathways. It proposes that effective TAFF roadmaps must be anchored in science, justice, and national ownership, while integrating elements such as subsidy reform, economic diversification, and decommissioning. The guide highlights the necessity of international coordination between producer and consumer countries to manage systemic risks, reform global finance, and ensure a just and orderly transition.

The report argues that South Africa must elevate the Southern Ocean and Antarctica in its strategic planning, as the region is critical for global climate regulation, food security, and maritime safety. While South Africa is the only African state party to the Antarctic Treaty, its diplomatic engagement has been inconsistent. The document highlights rising risks from climate change, such as sea-level rise threatening African coasts, and geopolitical tensions, including Russia's seismic surveying and the blocking of Marine Protected Areas by China and Russia. It suggests South Africa leverage its non-claimant status and role as a logistical gateway to enhance its influence, while warning that its under-resourced navy may struggle with increasing search and rescue demands from growing Antarctic tourism and rerouted shipping traffic around the Cape of Good Hope.

The document analyzes the transition of South Africa from dominant-party rule to a coalition-based political landscape. It examines the formation and fragility of the 10-party Government of National Unity (GNU), provincial coalitions in Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, and the Northern Cape, and the chronic instability of municipal coalitions. The authors argue that while coalitions can broaden representation and introduce checks and balances, South Africa's current reliance on informal, non-binding agreements leads to gridlock and a reliance on courts for dispute resolution. The paper recommends formalizing coalition pacts, limiting motions of no confidence, and establishing transparent monitoring mechanisms to restore public trust.

The document argues that African diplomacy at the UN is evolving into a distinct form of realpolitik that blends enduring values with strategic calculation. This approach is evidenced by voting patterns on conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine, where states use abstentions to maintain strategic autonomy. The brief highlights key institutional gains, such as the AU's permanent G20 seat and UN Security Council Resolution 2719 for financing AU-led peace operations, while noting that challenges in coordination, capacity, and consistency persist. Ultimately, it posits that Africa uses moral and legal narratives not to cloak domination, but to resist it and negotiate influence within an asymmetrical international system.

The document examines energy storage as a structural resource for flexibility in Latin American electrical systems facing high penetration of variable renewable energy. It highlights that while Chile leads in battery deployment to manage curtailment, other countries like Colombia, Peru, and Brazil are at earlier stages, often focusing on reliability or specific industrial uses. The report argues that the primary barriers to deployment are institutional and regulatory rather than technological, and recommends shifting from a capacity-focused approach to a functional one that prioritizes specific flexibility needs.

The Centre for Environmental Rights (CER) welcomes the introduction of a licensing regime and personal liability for directors in the Water Services Amendment Bill [B24 – 2025] but warns that the Bill concentrates too much power in the Director General and lacks mandatory environmental and public health standards for licensing. The CER argues that the Bill fails to address systemic under-funding of infrastructure and climate-change resilience, and it calls for the inclusion of mandatory climate-adaptation plans and a national framework for wastewater reuse.

The global pipeline for wind and utility-scale solar projects grew by 11% in 2025, reaching 4.9 TW. While China and India lead in construction and prospective capacity, G7 nations show stagnant growth in their pipelines, creating a gap in meeting the COP28 goal to triple renewable energy capacity by 2030.

The Universal Basic Income Coalition (UBIC) submits that food insecurity in South Africa is primarily a result of income poverty and landlessness rather than food scarcity. The submission highlights that while social grants have historically improved nutrition, their current adequacy and coverage are declining due to food inflation and fiscal austerity. UBIC proposes transforming the Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant into a universal, unconditional, and redistributive basic income for all adults aged 18-59, pegged to the food poverty line (FPL) and eventually the upper-bound poverty line (UBPL).

The document provides a comprehensive critique of the South African food system, highlighting how historical land dispossession and post-apartheid deregulation have led to extreme corporate concentration and persistent food insecurity. It advocates for a transition toward agroecology and food sovereignty, emphasizing the need for secure land tenure—particularly for women—and the realignment of social grants to meet the food poverty line. The submission also details the 'triple burden' of malnutrition affecting children and the increasing risks posed by climate change to a water-scarce agricultural sector.

The report details a three-day workshop involving civil society, labour, and producers to analyze the intersection of climate change and South Africa's food system. It critiques mainstream 'climate-smart' technical fixes, advocating instead for transformative alternatives like agroecology, land reform, and seed sovereignty. The document provides a framework for engaging with the Climate Change Act 22 of 2024, specifically through the National Adaptation Strategy and Plan (NASP) and Sector Adaptation Plans, to ensure that climate policy addresses structural inequalities and supports marginalized food system actors.

The 2026 National Budget is criticized for maintaining austerity measures, reducing non-interest spending by R5.2 billion in 2026/27, and failing to address chronic food insecurity and unemployment. The document highlights that real spending on public services, including education and healthcare, is declining, while tax relief is skewed toward higher-income earners. It further critiques the second Gender Budget Statement for being peripheral to fiscal decision-making and failing to address the structural vulnerabilities of female-headed households.

The document outlines a framework for monitoring sustainable jobs in Canada to ensure accountability and support the Sustainable Jobs Action Plan. It recommends the use of 19 proposed indicators and draws on international experiences from Scotland, South Africa, and Ireland to emphasize the importance of data collection, transparency, and public communication in managing the transition away from fossil fuels.

The SUNCASA project utilizes a monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) framework to track changes in gender and social inclusion norms among participants in Ethiopia, Rwanda, and South Africa. Using pre- and post-training surveys with Likert-style questions, the project recorded an 82% increase in participants' knowledge of GESI issues, exceeding its 50% target. The project emphasizes an intersectional approach to identify how learning outcomes vary by gender, age, and marginalized status, specifically noting significant gains in household power dynamic awareness among women in Kigali and social equity understanding among youth in Johannesburg.

Russia is attempting to leverage historical liberation-era ties and anti-Western rhetoric to maintain influence in Southern Africa, but faces significant constraints. While it maintains security cooperation and diplomatic links with several SADC members, its economic footprint remains modest, accounting for barely 1% of the region's external trade in 2024. The document highlights a gap between Moscow's symbolic gestures—such as debt forgiveness and limited grain shipments—and tangible developmental results, noting that sanctions and economic weakness hinder its ability to compete with China, the EU, and the US.

The Centre for Environmental Rights and Natural Justice, representing several community and environmental networks, submitted formal objections to the Scoping Report for the Motuoane Production Right application. The project proposes hydrocarbon exploration and extraction over approximately 14,400 hectares in the Free State Province, involving up to 43 production wells and associated infrastructure. The objectors argue that the Scoping Report is deficient in its assessments of air quality, climate change, hydrogeology, and social impacts, and that the public participation process was not meaningful.

The document introduces a conceptual framework for evaluating gender equity and sustainable livelihoods in renewable energy value chains (REVCs). Using a social reproduction lens, it moves beyond simple employment metrics to examine the interplay between paid and unpaid labour, care responsibilities, and structural inequalities. The framework is structured around three dimensions: the global distribution of value, work and livelihoods, and ecological justice. It is intended as an assessment tool for policymakers and researchers to ensure that the transition to net zero emissions does not reproduce existing patterns of dependence or inequality, with illustrative applications mentioned for South Africa, Kenya, and Ghana.

The document evaluates South Africa's energy transition, arguing that while legal frameworks for renewable investment are expanding, they fail to guarantee structural socio-economic transformation. It identifies critical gaps in industrial policy, where localisation remains fragile due to inconsistent enforcement and import reliance, and in labour policy, where renewable energy jobs are often short-term and lack stability. The report concludes that a just transition requires integrating energy reform with industrial strategy, municipal governance, and labour market policies to avoid 'low-carbon poverty'.

The Institute for Economic Justice (IEJ) calls for a radical shift in South Africa's fiscal policy for Budget 2026, arguing that current priorities of debt stabilization and primary surpluses fail to address mass unemployment and poverty. The briefing proposes a 'full employment agenda' driven by progressive taxation, the mobilization of public assets like the Government Employees Pension Fund (GEPF), and a significant increase in public investment in infrastructure and social services. Key recommendations include implementing a universal basic income grant, adopting a dual policy rate regime via the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) to lower capital costs for development, and pursuing climate-responsive green industrialization. The IEJ warns that without such transformative changes, the economy will not absorb the growing labour force, leaving unemployment rates above 40%.