A Just Transition: The Cautious Approach to Climate Activism in South Africa

When we look at South Africa and its economic and social state, we examine the current affairs of what the people can afford and what the country can sustain in parallel to what the nation hopes to align itself towards in terms of goals and aspirations.

With a unique history and a sudden spike in development during the 20^th century amidst political chaos, the fundamental issues that underlay the country’s flaws are poverty, inequality and unemployment.

Climate Change Activism in South Africa

South Africa has joined the world stage in at the eleventh hour in terms of climate change activism and while the bulk of the world’s leading nations and producers seek to streamline their already thriving industries, the country is still battling to even establish its own, let alone try to meet first-world expectations of carbon emission standards, renewable energies and recyclable materials.

Scraping the bottom of the barrel in terms of affordability and resources, many posture that South Africa simply doesn’t have the room to accommodate meeting these climate change objectives, and that these are shouldered by the world’s larger manufacturers and contributors such as China and the USA.

However, South Africa is still among the top 25 producers of carbon emissions globally, and the largest in Africa, attributed simply to Eskom and its scant refusal to consider replacing coal as a means of generating power.

Challenges, Benefits and Way Forward

Concerns about start-up costs, political and institutional goals as well as job displacements puts most of the nation on the conservative path; as if to say, carbon emissions is not priority when there are greater humanitarian crises to deal with.

However, it should be said that when one considers a departure from a destructive as if time is on their side, it is this ignorance that delays the critical juncture where change should take place – in other words, it is in this time of finalising our infrastructure establishment, that we should bite the bullet and suck up the initial headache of transferring to renewable energy without digging ourselves a deeper hole or trying to fill a bucket with punctures in it, as South African politicians have a tendency to do in order to keep their dreams afloat think South African Airways and the flailing SABC.

The concept of conflict versus cooperation is becoming something that South Africa’s government institutions can’t ignore for too much longer before power and water demands, increased demand for agricultural production and the glaring levels of unemployment start to erode away at whatever little infrastructure the country tries to maintain before a catastrophic failure.

It is important to note that from a cost-benefit analysis perspective, the heavy start-up cost and rollout of renewable energy is far outweighed by the benefits of reliable, clean energy that is also new and has a steady plan for regular maintenance, notwithstanding the fact that millions of jobs would be created by this shift.

South Africa is also in the juvenile stages of recycling e-waste, something that every individual doesn’t particularly consider when buying new appliances and electronics that are built to last for a definitive time and then thrown away.

Statistically, each South African accounts for nearly 7 kilograms of e-waste annually, culminating in the country producing over 360,000 tons each year, of which only a staggering 7% to 12% ends up in recycling, meaning that the remaining waste ends up at landfills and contributes to harmful chemicals and substances leached into the soil and air for decades.

Contributing to the general apathy of recycling in South Africa, apart from the general lack of recycling infrastructure (in comparison to organized and collected domestic waste), is the lack of education and insight as to what can be recycled, how and where.

South Africans believe that they are somehow far more advanced than their Asian counterparts or other third-world partner nations, possibly because of our relative position closer to European regulations and lives; however other nations have far surpassed us in their genius with how to use everyday items in a practical and useful way to improve the everyday state of living.

The ‘child’ mentality that South Africans have been led to follow is one where ‘I do not have to look after myself as this is the job of the government and others’ – likely due to the thousands of unfulfilled political promises that played on the emotions of our difficult history to instil a ‘victim’ mind-set into the everyday citizen.

The culmination of this attitude is what we see in the present day South Africans are indifferent to their environment and climate change, conservation, renewable energy and recycling, and the political powers believe that the responsibility to enact this radical shift to embrace climate activism as part and parcel of everyday governance will be the onus of the next political candidate in their season.

Quite simply put, climate change activism starts as a grassroots movement, from the ground up, as the responsibility of each and every citizen to maintain and preserve the longevity of their own patch, while the government stabilises its economy and industry and eventually plays catch up and joins in at a later stage.

Relying on government institutions to filter climate activism from the top down is a naïve approach to the topic, failing to take into account the willingness of South Africans to grip the reality that their beautiful country doesn’t have an indefinite timeline to stay one of the world’s most beautiful tourist destinations.

Conclusion

In conclusion, climate change activism starts with each citizen waking up to responsibility and playing their part – small efforts towards renewable energy such as solar geysers and windmills, recycling domestic waste, creating compost heaps and placing electronic waste in recycling depots, saving water, curbing excessive power usage and most importantly – the family unit needs to be educated and raised with an ethic and cultural mores of conservation, not victimization.

Written By: Thrivin Naidoo

Edited By: Zaiba Abid