Balancing Climate Change and Energy Policy in South Africa: Negotiations, Economics, and Models

Date Presented:

Abstract:

Based on interviews with 51 South Africans (38 with executive leadership responsibilities) representing nearly every major stakeholder on climate change mitigation in the energy sector –government, business, civil society and research – this thesis studies the process, discourse and evidence surrounding the South African government’s engagement with climate change from 2005 to 2012. Chapter one traces the major arguments made by stakeholders for and against mitigation and the way in which they inform policy documents, concluding that there exists no discursive or non-quantitative way to balance the competing discourses. Consequentially, this thesis argues that grasping the history (and future) of South African energy and climate policy requires looking at the specific institutions that create and propagate these ideas. Chapter two traces the history of energy planning within the state-owned utility Eskom, the Department of Energy, and private industrial and mining conglomerates; chapter three describes the origins of arguments for climate mitigation in civil society, progressive economists and scientists, and a small group of international negotiators in the Department of Environmental Affairs, and their accidental stabilization in President Jacob Zuma’s commitment at Copenhagen. Chapter four details the implications of these parallel histories for the role of economic modeling in resolving these disputes; chapter five describes the roles of stakeholder engagement, democratic deliberation and decision-making; and chapter six concludes.