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The report argues that South Africa's current Just Energy Transition Investment Plan (JET-IP) relies too heavily on private finance and de-risking, which may increase energy costs and fail to ensure a socially just transition. It proposes a cohesive framework based on worker demands, featuring a Climate Response Fund (CRF) funded by carbon taxes and fuel levies, a promotional monetary policy to direct credit toward green industrialisation, and the reform of Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) like the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) to provide long-term, patient capital.

The G20 is a consensus-seeking dialogue mechanism established in 1999 to address global financial crises, comprising 19 countries, the European Union, and the African Union. It operates through a rotating presidency—with South Africa hosting in 2025—and is organized into Finance and Sherpa tracks. While it lacks a formal international mandate or binding decision-making power, it provides a platform for global economic coordination and civil society engagement via 'Engagement Groups' such as the C20.

The fact sheet examines how loopholes in the international tax system allow multinational corporations (MNCs) and the super-rich to avoid taxes, resulting in an estimated US$492 billion in global revenue losses for governments in 2024. It critiques the OECD/G20 Two-Pillar Solution for favoring developed nations and lacking transparency, while advocating for the 'Taxing the Super Rich' initiative and the establishment of a UN Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation to ensure more democratic and progressive global taxation.

This fact sheet from the Institute for Economic Justice examines the structural causes of the African debt crisis, the impact of high interest rates on public services, and the limitations of G20 initiatives. It argues that the crisis is rooted in a 'rigged global system' and calls for systemic reform and debt cancellation through movements like Jubilee 2025.

The document asserts that global hunger is caused by a profit-driven system rather than food scarcity, highlighting the role of the 'ABCD firms' and financial speculators in driving up prices. It links food systems to 34% of global greenhouse gas emissions and notes the severe impact of climate-driven droughts in Southern Africa. While acknowledging previous G20 efforts, it criticizes the lack of systemic reforms, such as regulating food speculation or implementing buffer stocks. Under its G20 presidency, South Africa has established a Food Security Task Force to study commodity price volatility and stabilization techniques.

The document analyzes the systemic difficulties G20 nations face in transitioning from fossil fuels, citing economic dependencies, infrastructure lock-in, and social risks to workers. It notes a failure to meet 2009 G20 commitments to phase out subsidies, with G7 and developing nations spending hundreds of billions in 2023. The text emphasizes South Africa's 2025 G20 presidency as an opportunity to champion a people-centered approach involving green industrial hubs and socio-economic safeguards for coal-dependent regions.

The document argues that G20 climate finance often prioritizes private profit over public welfare, trapping vulnerable nations in debt through loan-based funding and 'de-risking' strategies. It calls for a shift toward grant-based funding and public investment based on the 'polluter pays' principle to ensure a just energy transition.

This fact sheet defines green industrial policy (GIP) as government strategies to promote sustainable industries and phase out greenhouse gas emitters. It highlights the success of China's electric vehicle industry as a model for GIP but warns that developing countries face significant financing, skills, and technological barriers. The document emphasizes the role of the G20 in shaping global GIP principles, particularly under South Africa's agenda, which focuses on leveraging critical minerals to drive inclusive economic growth and manufacturing in Africa.

The document advocates for Universal Social Protection Floors (SPF) as a means to ensure basic healthcare and income security globally. It highlights South Africa's role during its G20 Presidency to promote a voluntary framework for SPFs and the integration of social protection with industrial strategies. The text emphasizes the need for political will and funding, noting that only 12% of global development targets are currently on track.

The South African Tax Justice Working Group urges the South African government and National Treasury to implement domestic 'Tax the Rich' policies and combat corporate tax abuse. This demand follows South Africa's recent international commitments, including joining the Sevilla Platform for Action (SPA) on 1 July 2025 to tax High-Net-Worth Individuals and endorsing the UN Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation (UNFCITC) at the 17th BRICS Summit in Brazil.

Dr Basani Baloyi argues that unpaid care work is an invisible economic powerhouse that sustains global systems but remains excluded from GDP calculations. The address highlights Brazil's National Caregiving Policy and South Africa's G20 priorities as models for transformation. It asserts that investing in care infrastructure—guided by the ILO's 5R framework—would generate significant GDP returns, create millions of jobs, and address the looming demographic crisis of an aging global population.

The Institute for Economic Justice (IEJ) submitted comments to the Finance Standing Committee regarding the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) Amendment Bill [B26 – 2018]. While supporting the transition to sole state ownership of the bank to align with international norms, the IEJ argues that ownership changes alone will not resolve policy incoherence or achieve sustainable economic growth. The IEJ advocates for a broader review of the SARB Act to expand the bank's mandate toward green structural transformation and increase coordination between monetary and fiscal policy.

The policy brief examines the barriers to phasing out oil and gas within G20 nations, noting that while renewable capacity has grown, fossil fuel subsidies and deep industrial integration persist. It advocates for measurable phase-out targets, subsidy reform, and increased concessional financing for the Global South to ensure a just energy transition.

The document examines the intersection of climate change, gender, and food systems in southern Africa, arguing that climate shocks intensify the burden of unpaid care work disproportionately borne by rural and working-class women. It critiques technocratic, productivity-focused agricultural policies and proposes a framework based on Feminist Ecological Economics and Feminist Political Ecology to reorient food systems around human needs and ecological regeneration. Key recommendations include the redistribution of care work, support for agroecology, and the implementation of gender-responsive fiscal policies.

The Universal Basic Income Coalition (UBIC) warns that National Treasury's new conditions for SASSA—including bank account surveillance, database cross-checks, and biometric verification—will erroneously exclude up to half of rightful beneficiaries of the child support, older persons, disability, and care dependency grants. Drawing on evidence from the Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant, where 90% of exclusions are estimated to be erroneous, the briefing argues that these measures prioritise fiscal savings over constitutional rights to social assistance and basic nutrition.

The briefing note critiques the OECD's two-pillar solution for its lack of transparency and failure to recover the $400 billion lost annually to tax abuse, noting that high-income countries benefit most. It advocates for the UN Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation as a democratic alternative for all 193 UN member states. The document urges South Africa, during its 2025 G20 presidency, to champion global minimum standards for taxing the super-rich and build consensus for the UN Convention to support sustainable development and the SDGs.

The document examines the risks associated with South Africa's increasing reliance on IFI loans, particularly for climate finance under the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JET-P). It highlights a lack of transparency and parliamentary oversight, noting that loan conditionalities can undermine constitutional rights and sovereignty. The authors propose a five-step approval procedure involving sustainability, human rights, development, and sovereignty assessments, alongside a public consultation and majority vote in the National Assembly.

The Institute for Economic Justice (IEJ) has submitted recommendations to Parliament’s Joint Constitutional Review Committee to expand the South African Reserve Bank's (SARB) mandate. The IEJ argues that the current focus on inflation targeting through high interest rates hinders sustainable growth and fails to address external inflation drivers like climate change. The submission advocates for a dual mandate balancing price stability with developmental outcomes, including employment and green structural transformation, and calls for stronger coordination between the SARB and the Minister of Finance to align monetary and fiscal policies for a just transition to a low-carbon economy.

The IEJ argues that the SARB's current focus on inflation targeting through interest rate manipulation is a 'blunt approach' that fails to address the external drivers of inflation—such as climate change and global oil prices—while hindering job creation and industrial productivity. The submission contends that the SARB's independence has led to insufficient coordination with the National Treasury, entrenching the economic status quo. To remedy this, the IEJ recommends expanding the SARB's mandate to explicitly include green structural transformation and poverty reduction, and tempering its independence to ensure closer cooperation with the Executive on socioeconomic stability.

The IEJ argues that the current debt-reduction strategy is ineffective and suppresses economic growth. It recommends rejecting regressive taxes, such as VAT increases and the freeze on personal income tax brackets, while proposing progressive alternatives like wealth taxes and reinstating the corporate income tax rate to fund social protection and infrastructure.