Low Carbon and Climate Resilient Investments: Is South Africa Doing Enough?

Abstract

Evidence shows that South Africa is vulnerable to climate change and is also among the highest in terms of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in Africa. In response, the government has developed a relatively comprehensive strategic and policy response framework that aims to build a climate resilient economy. The framework includes approaches to reduction in the country’s carbon footprint and achievement of resilience to climate change. Implementation of the planned strategies inevitably requires significant resources. The aim of this paper is to review South Africa’s response to climate change, with a special focus on investments in low carbon and climate resilient action. It highlights the successes to date and the challenges that still have to be addressed. Using secondary data sources, mainly reports published by public, private and international agencies, the paper argues that although the country has achieved a considerable measure of success at the level of formulating strategic and policy interventions and, to some extent, in financing their implementation, investment in low carbon and climate resilient initiatives is still inadequate and uncoordinated, given the magnitude of the problem. It is recommended that a more concerted effort must be made in order to scale-up the mobilisation and utilisation of climate investments in order to achieve the goal of a low carbon, climate resilient economy.