The unavoidable politics of fair energy futures
Alex Beresford and Ruth Bookbinder explore the intertwined dynamics of political economy, social justice, and international cooperation shaping South Africa’s pursuit of a just and equitable shift from coal to renewable energy sources.
There is good reason for calling for an energy transition in South Africa. The country is the 11th largest emitter of greenhouse gas per capita in the world, due in large part to its dependence on coal-generated electricity. Currently, South Africa aims to achieve net zero emissions by 2050 but the Climate Action Tracker rates its current progress toward this as “insufficient.” The scale of the challenge is immense: the country has to reduce emissions by 34% to meet the 1.5°C target by 2030, the 12th largest reduction requirement in the world — not far behind China’s formidable 42%.
South Africa’s quest for just energy transition is perhaps best described as oxymoronic: it is desperately demanded and desperately resisted, beset by contradictory and incongruous elements, locked in constant tension and struggle. It is driven by the best and worst intentions, threatening, while simultaneously fostering, social justice and global inequity. The fate of its transition and those affected by it are a matter of global fixation and indifference. Indeed, there is significant international political and financial commitment to promoting a transition from coal-fired energy to renewables in South Africa and the Just Energy Transition Partnership agreement struck at COP 26 (and further embedded at COP27) reflect some of the most ambitious plans to emerge from the COP summits to date. These international interests further complicate the politics of South Africa’s energy transition, balancing national imperatives with international expectations and funding arrangements.
So why did we become interested in South Africa’s energy transition? Our previous research has explored the politics of accumulation and distribution in post-apartheid South Africa, trying to make sense of the tangled roots of social injustice in South Africa and their political consequences. Our research has addressed the political economy of the country’s ‘Minerals Energy Complex’ (MEC), which broadly covers the longstanding interlinkages between parastatals such as Eskom (that have a virtual monopoly over electricity generation) and other sectors of the economy, especially mining and manufacturing. The MEC has resisted and adapted to previous efforts to reform and in this respect the drive toward a just energy future in South Africa represents the latest development in its long history. Its significance cannot be downplayed: a transition from coal would constitute the largest socioeconomic upheaval in recent South African history.
Consequently, when we were invited to join a project on just transition that needed to comprehend the inherently political character of energy transitions, particularly where global environmental evangelism meets with complicated postcolonial political realities. The project was a natural next step in our research agendas.
Taking on the “MEC” is inherently and primarily a political challenge: energy transition threatens the powerful vested interests of international and domestic business. It also poses huge social justice challenges for those working-class communities dependent on jobs up and down the coal value chain. The latter’s voices must be heard to ensure that any transition is not only viable but also ‘just’.
To this end, with our partners in the Sam Tambani Research Institute (SATRI) connected to the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), we are exploring how working-class communities are responding to these challenges. We are conducting interviews with elected officials at all levels of the union as well as workshops and focus groups with union members to explore their expectations and demands for a just transition. The overarching aim is to help build union capacity and to help inform successful engagements with the Presidential Climate Commission.
As our early findings already highlight, the contradictions and political tensions generated by the slow move toward a renewable energy future are considerable. They engender questions about global inequalities of power and wealth and about whose voices count in determining both the primacy and definition of ‘justice’ in energy transitions.
The JETP agreements reached at COP26 were hailed as a global blueprint for others to follow. The potential for such agreements to augment environmental and social justice will be realised or lost at the coal face of political struggles.
