Search Climate Insights Directory

The draft Traditional and Khoi-San Leadership Bill 2024 aims to replace the unconstitutional Traditional and Khoi-San Leadership Act 3 of 2019. It outlines criteria for the recognition of traditional and Khoi-San communities, leadership positions, and the establishment of various councils and houses at local, provincial, and national levels. The Bill also creates a Commission on Khoi-San Matters to investigate and recommend the recognition of Khoi-San communities and leaders.

The 2024 Draft Traditional and Khoi-San Leadership (TKL) Bill seeks to formally recognise and regulate leadership structures in South Africa, addressing historical exclusions of Khoi-San communities and correcting constitutional failings of the 2019 Act. Key provisions include processes for leadership recognition and the protection of community land rights, though the document notes concerns regarding the lack of clear guidelines for community engagement and enforcement mechanisms for gender representation.

The document outlines a proposal for a community-centered national database to safeguard Mozambique's traditional knowledge on biodiversity. It identifies critical regulatory gaps in digital documentation and proposes a multi-tiered access system to prevent misappropriation. The framework emphasizes interoperability with existing scientific repositories like BioNoMo and RECIMO, and integrates a robust community-led governance model for consent and dispute resolution.

The document examines systemic barriers in Africa's mining sector, including tax avoidance, high borrowing costs, and technological monopolies. It proposes a 'resource leverage strategy' to exchange mineral access for technology transfer and local beneficiation, while advocating for the adoption of African-led financial frameworks like the African Continental Ratings Agency (AfCRA) and AMREC-PARC to foster economic independence.

The document argues that while the energy transition is accelerating, current efforts are insufficient to limit warming to 1.5°C, and the shift in energy demand will fundamentally reshape global trade and geopolitics. It highlights a significant investment gap, noting that emerging markets and developing economies outside China account for only about 15% of global clean energy spending. The report identifies several trade-related barriers, including protectionist tariffs on electric vehicles, divergent technical standards, and the persistence of fossil fuel subsidies, which reached $7 trillion globally in 2023. It specifically warns that Border Carbon Adjustment Mechanisms (BCAs) and Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) provisions in investment treaties may disproportionately burden developing nations. To achieve an equitable transition, the authors recommend reforming WTO subsidy rules, increasing financial support for local value addition in critical minerals, and coordinating the phase-out of fossil fuel production.

The North Gauteng High Court ruled in favor of the Institute for Economic Justice (IEJ) and #PayTheGrants, finding that the South African government's administration of the Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant was unconstitutional. The court determined that the grant is not a temporary measure and that the government used 'ulterior' motives to exclude eligible applicants through restrictive regulations, such as a solely online application process and inaccurate database checks. The judgment requires the government to allow in-person applications, redefine 'insufficient means' to exclude irregular monetary inflows, and develop a plan within four months to increase the grant's value and means-test threshold in line with the cost of living. Additionally, the court struck down budget caps that limited the number of beneficiaries and ordered SASSA to rectify payment delays affecting 10-15% of successful applicants.

The research paper examines the water crisis in Johannesburg, attributing it to a combination of municipal capacity constraints, corruption, and a national government strategy of fiscal consolidation that undermines constitutional obligations to provide basic services.

The report maps nearly one hundred agreements on critical minerals between African states and global actors, highlighting the strategic competition for resources. It identifies a lack of transparency in these deals and notes that while China and Russia are prominent, other actors like Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE are expanding their footprints. The analysis emphasizes that these partnerships often reflect broader geopolitical and historical ties rather than just economic needs.

The research identifies strong intraseasonal teleconnections between South American and South African daily rainfall, with South American anomalies leading by 4-5 days. The mechanisms vary by season: summer involves both local Walker cell modulation and extratropical Rossby wave trains, while winter is dominated by Rossby wave trains and subtropical influences. These processes create circulation changes in southern Africa that favor rainfall-producing systems like cutoff lows.

The Centre for Environmental Rights (CER) argues that the proposed 2024 regulations for unconventional hydrocarbon extraction in South Africa are insufficient to protect water resources and the climate. The CER highlights the extreme water intensity of fracking, the risk of groundwater contamination from toxic chemicals and radioactive materials, and the lack of state capacity for compliance monitoring. They specifically warn that fracking in the semi-arid Karoo region would violate constitutional rights to water and a healthy environment. The document calls for the adoption of the precautionary principle, the implementation of long-term monitoring (up to 300 years) for well integrity, and the requirement for meaningful public participation and community development provisions.

The document argues that while green guarantees can mobilize up to five times more capital than loans, they are underutilized due to complexity, lack of technical assistance, high costs, and time horizon misalignments. It showcases case studies from the World Bank Group, Green Guarantee Company, TCX, GuarantCo, and a Sida-IFU partnership to demonstrate how streamlining processes, providing targeted technical support, subsidizing currency hedges, extending guarantee tenors to 20 years, and fostering bilateral cooperation can unlock private capital for the green transition in EMDEs.

The policy brief advocates for an evidence-based approach to transforming land administration in South Africa, specifically addressing off-register rights in urban and rural settings. It highlights that current formal registration systems fail to capture the social and customary norms governing land use, such as 'family houses' in cities and household-level rights in rural areas. The author argues that a comprehensive, transformed land administration system is necessary to record these diverse tenures and resolve disputes administratively rather than relying solely on constrained common-law court remedies.

This policy brief examines the gap between registered and off-register land rights in South Africa, defining land administration as the management function that executes land governance policies. It contrasts the formal common-law property system with customary and informal rights, noting that the latter lack formal registration, precise demarcation, and integrated information management. The brief evaluates two international models for bridging this gap: the World Bank and UN-Habitat's 'Fit-for-Purpose' approach, which emphasizes flexibility and affordability, and the 'Talking Titler' evolutionary design approach, which focuses on social networks and context-specific adaptability. While the Fit-for-Purpose model saw success in Rwanda, critics argue it may overlook local power dynamics in South Africa, suggesting that a more flexible, adaptive system may be necessary to address the country's complex land-rights situation.

The report examines how urban green space access is often socially determined by income, gender, and age, particularly in rapidly growing cities in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. It highlights that lower-income communities often prioritize provisioning services—such as food and fuel—over the aesthetic or health-related benefits typically emphasized in high-income contexts. The authors argue that top-down planning frequently fails these populations and can lead to gentrification or social opposition. Using a case study from the Nakuru River area in Kenya, the report identifies systemic barriers to community-led management, including unclear governmental responsibilities, funding shortfalls, and the influence of external NGOs. It concludes that equitable urban greening requires integrating infrastructure improvements and employment opportunities with participatory design that includes women, youth, and people with disabilities.

The document advocates for a territorial approach to agroecology in Africa, integrating agricultural practice adaptation, biodiversity conservation, and the development of embedded food systems. It identifies key practices such as agroforestry, integrated landscape management (ILA), and territorial markets, while highlighting systemic hurdles including limited financial resources, loss of indigenous knowledge, and policy silos. The briefing recommends catalytic philanthropic funding for multi-actor governance, local market infrastructure, and participatory research to scale locally-driven solutions.

The document examines the intersection of trade policy and food systems transformation in Africa, specifically advocating for the alignment of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) with agroecological principles. It identifies significant hurdles to this transition, including high intra-continental tariffs, complex non-tariff barriers, and the dominance of industrial agriculture. The briefing emphasizes the role of territorial markets in supporting smallholder farmers and calls for philanthropic investment to bridge funding gaps, as agroecology currently receives less than 10% of total agricultural funding in Africa. It provides specific recommendations for philanthropies to support local food trade, advocate for policy changes that recognize ecological services, and invest in capacity-building for agroecological communities.

The document advocates for a 'deep' just transition in African food systems that prioritizes human rights, structural equity, and agroecology over industrialization. It highlights the vulnerabilities of African food systems to climate change and the risks of 'modernization' policies that favor agribusiness. Using South Africa's highly unequal, industrial food system as a cautionary example, the brief recommends that philanthropies shift toward long-term, flexible funding for multi-actor coalitions, grassroots initiatives, and participatory research to foster systemic change.

The Free State Environmental Justice Network (FSEJN) has filed an appeal to the Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment to set aside an environmental authorisation (EA) granted on 23 June 2025 to Afro Energy (Pty) Ltd. The EA allows for the exploration of conventional natural gas across approximately 240,000 hectares in the Free State and Mpumalanga provinces. FSEJN argues that the decision by the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) was unlawful, irrational, and failed to adequately assess climate, air quality, geohydrological, and socio-economic impacts, while also neglecting meaningful public participation.

The San Giorgio Group's 11th meeting focused on redirecting climate finance strategies amidst geopolitical uncertainty. Key recommendations include empowering National Development Banks (NDBs) to leverage domestic capital, reforming Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) to prioritize private capital mobilization over direct project finance, and scaling adaptation finance through better insurance coordination and risk reduction. The group emphasizes shifting the climate narrative from 'doom and gloom' to one of economic opportunity and 'kitchen-table issues' to better engage policymakers and citizens. A concrete 2025 agenda includes launching 10-15 additional country platforms, operationalizing the Baku-to-Belem Roadmap for the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG), and creating a network of insurance regulators for climate.

The report details the outcomes of the FSD Network Conference held in Nairobi, Kenya, in February 2025. It examines the impact of gender-responsive financial systems, the use of alternative credit scoring, the influence of societal gender norms on financial autonomy, and the role of digital public infrastructure and AI in bridging the gender gap in financial services across Africa.