Thirty years after its first weak elections, South Africa still suffers from long-term structural upheavals created through decades of apartheid and three hundred years of colonialism. South Africa might possibly be the most industrialized economy in Africa, but it has an unemployment rate of over 30% and a youth unemployment rate of 60%. In recent years, the disorders have been exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic and “load shedding,” in which the power source keeps up with demand, leading to unplanned power outages (I experienced several on my first day here).
Power outages are the result of insufficient investment in electrical infrastructure and its maintenance, and cause additional disruptions to commercial and technological economies. The effect of high unemployment and inequality is reflected in the widespread phenomenon of de facto segregation and securitization: homes supplied with solar panels can be seen from the road behind electric fences adorned with “armed response” signs.
A transition to renewables is desperately needed (and desperately desired) here in a country where power generation is still heavily reliant on coal, a point made to us during our press holidays by Peter Van Binsbergen, CEO of BMW South Africa. It recently invested $224 million in its plant near Pretoria to make hybrid and battery-electric vehicles.
The plant, housed in gigantic warehouse-like buildings, has lately been assembling cars for export (mainly to Europe). It looks like an airport, with a set of parts moved along the local roads by small application vehicles. Inside the paint shop, bodies are transported through the device and elegantly immersed in a series of tanks containing the chemicals and paints needed to resist corrosion before being heated in an oven to dry.
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The move to electric vehicles is part of a wider sustainability effort, ranging from efforts to reduce waste to landfill by 100%, to improving biodiversity on BMW’s property and using biogas to generate 30% of its energy needs, with the ambition to become fully renewable. However, in South Africa, the lack of charging infrastructure and the country’s vast expanse have led the company to also turn to mobile cars that run on hydrogen – hydrogen from the abundant solar energy of the Eastern Cape. The combined efforts to put in place the new infrastructure for this goal are still unclear: the African National Congress ruling party’s record on infrastructure and improvements is uneven at best.
As Dr. Ongama Mtimka, teacher and commentator, told us at an event: “The All Blacks have taken us to a dark place,” drawing a comparison between the struggle New Zealand had to face in the World Cup final and the fact that South Africa has finished and survived the dark periods of its history. The transition of power here is as much about addressing the inequalities created by apartheid as it is about satisfying the power desires of industry and consumers. To achieve either, the country will need billions of dollars in climate. Finance: a factor that will feature prominently in the run-up to the Cop28 weather conference, which kicks off at the end of the month in Dubai.
At the 2009 Copenhagen meeting, developed countries pledged to mobilize $100 billion a year until 2020 for climate action in emerging countries. This promise has not been kept. In 2020, $83 billion was mobilized, according to the OECD, and Oxfam said that figure was inflated due to an exaggeration of climate lending and benefits; In reality, they said, it was only $24. 5 billion. The U. S. Department of Development (UNCTAD) has said that even the $100 billion target is only a fraction of what is needed: deficient countries face incredibly high interest rates and debt-servicing prices compared to their richer counterparts, and are averse to the rhetoric of the rich, industrialized and post-industrial West about over-reliance on fossil fuels.
In a joint UNCTAD article in the New Statesman Spotlight last month, a representative of the UN firm said that “developing countries face a $4 trillion-a-year hole in financing the Sustainable Development Goals, up from $2. 5 trillion in 2015. “The advances go beyond the undeniable climate gains and extend into broader social and economic programs, but the numbers give a sense of the scale of the challenge.
When world leaders, from the recently skeptical Rishi Sunak to South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, gather for Cop28 in just under four weeks, they will have a lot to say.
Samir’s was financed through the BMW Group. The New Statesman Spotlight has retained its editorial independence.
This article was originally published as part of Spotlight’s weekly Green Transition newsletter. Subscribe here.
[See also: Climate Finance: Who Pays to Reduce Inequality]