Climate Policy Engagement in South Africa

We find the contents to be an invaluable source of data on the status quo, and a particularly useful tool for use in constructive, solutions-focused engagement with portfolio companies and industry associations. The report highlights a number of the constraints facing South Africa’s largest emitters in their transition journeys – including those obstacles which are self-created – and presents a clear imperative for investors to act.

Dialogue and action on South Africa’s climate goals has never been more important than it is right now. The more we collaborate and engage on climate policies and developments, the greater the chance that we will actually meet our climate ambitions - as individuals, as a company, as a sector and as a country. We may disagree on how we get there and which pathway to follow but we must hold each other accountable for promises made and for ensuring we balance all perspectives as we accelerate the just energy transition.

This report demonstrates how negative climate lobbying in South Africa requires a much higher level of scrutiny locally. The damaging impact of this obstruction is ever more stark, given the country’s longstanding, intersecting crises of energy, jobs, and growth. And yet, as the report finds, transparency and disclosure on companies’ climate policy engagement activities in South Africa is still limited. In fact, in many cases, it is non-existent. The report also confirms how negative climate lobbying is often outsourced to industry associations, while the companies themselves publicly proclaim their support for the Paris Agreement.