If South Africa’s energy woes can be attributed, at least in part, to resistance to the transition from coal to renewable energy, then it is all the more important that the Just Transition delivers on the ‘just’ part of the equation.
This means a focus not only on replacing the direct jobs lost, but also on the wider social context of poverty, inequality and deprivation within which such transitions will happen.
Certainly, the baseline for this needs to be holistic social protection. But employment is at the heart of the concept of the Just Transition and, where market-based solutions are unable to deliver employment at the scale required – or in the places most affected – there is a vital role for special employment programmes to fill the gap.
The challenge is to optimise the social, economic and environmental value they can add.
Legitimacy jeopardised
If the energy transition is seen as exacerbating the crisis of unemployment, poverty and inequality, then the legitimacy and policy priority given to greener forms of energy will be placed in serious jeopardy. This political risk is already evident and may be escalating.
Yet most stakeholders agree that no matter how effectively the Just Energy Transition Investment Plan (JET-IP) is implemented, market-based investment in renewable alternatives – or any forms of investment in the affected areas – are unlikely to enable seamless transitions to new jobs, even only for current employees.
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Such jobs are unlikely to be created at the scale required, or in the same places as the jobs being lost. Nor will they be able to reproduce current employment and other multipliers in the local economies that stand to lose jobs in the transition process. All of this is well-recognised in South Africa’s JET-IP.
So how is that recognition translating into a plan of action?
At present, much of the discussion on the social equity dimensions of the Just Transition focuses on the role of social protection. This is often understood narrowly in relation to social grants. Certainly, such grants matter. For many, they are a lifeline keeping hunger and the most damaging impacts of poverty at bay. They are a necessary component of the strategy.
Yet, at the core of the Just Transition is the issue of jobs and the reality that in a society in which unemployment is the main cause of poverty and inequality, ...