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The assumption that there will be trade-offs between climate change mitigation measures and poverty reduction measures goes largely unchallenged in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. This paper analyses how these trade-offs unfold at the national level in South Africa. South Africa is a middle income country that exemplifies the challenge of accommodating efforts for emissions reductions and poverty reduction at the same time. The paper analyses the trade-offs and distributional conflicts that drive and hinder institutional change in the current climate policy regime. The analysis focuses on three regulatory regimes in climate change: the climate change response white paper, the carbon tax and the renewable energy program. A combination of interview-based qualitative research and an innovative discourse network analysis reveals the discourse between competing coalitions supporting and opposing specific interventions. We find in the case of South Africa that the lack of economic growth over the last few years has kept emissions levels relatively low and consequently postponed the hard trade-offs between climate change mitigation and poverty reduction. Trade-offs appear in the political discourse, especially around the carbon tax and carbon budgets. Yet, distributional conflicts determine both drivers and barriers to institutional change. Powerful coalitions opposing the carbon tax managed to push the government into postponing the implementation of the tax. We conclude that win-win situations are possible, and that the crux lies in the implementation. A carbon tax proposal has made provisions for off-setting emissions through investment in clean technologies in low income communities. The renewable energy program created large foreign investment influx into the country, which is partially spent on community development. The main challenge in creating win-win situations is overcoming the distributional conflicts. Lack of policy coordination, alignment and clarity of the legal frameworks create severe barriers to institutional change.

This paper analyses the question why the South African government intends to procure nuclear energy technology, despite affordable and accessible fossil and renewable energy alternatives. We analyse the social shaping of nuclear energy technology based on the statements of political actors in the public media. We combine a discourse network analysis with qualitative analysis to establish the coalitions in support and opposition of the programme. The central arguments in the debate are cost, safety, job creation, the appropriateness of nuclear energy, emissions reductions, transparency, risks for corruption, and geopolitical influences. The analysis concludes that the nuclear programme is not primarily about generating electricity, as it creates tangible benefits for the coalition of supporters.

How can local content requirements (LCR) boost technological capability for renewable energy? This paper investigates the implementation of LCR in the wind energy in Brazil and South Africa. Brazil tried to grow a local wind industry requiring 60% domestic content in each installation since 2004. South Africa demands up to 45% domestic content in its recent program. The benefits of these requirements are heavily debated. The rationale behind LCR is that governments in developing countries intend to stimulate jobs in new industries and to accelerate technological development. This market intervention imposes a barrier for international manufacturers, as local manufacturing can push up the technology prices. Based on evidence from Brazil and South Africa, we find that LCR fall short as a single technology policy instrument. The Brazilian case shows that LCR incentivized the domestic production of low and medium technology content. These are the heavy parts, such as the towers, which are difficult to transport. Recently, parts of the nacelle, hubs and blades have increasingly been manufactured locally. High technology-intensive components, however, continue to be imported. Boosting local industries requires not just restrictive measure such as content requirements but, more importantly, it requires active support of technological capability.

This paper provides some answers to this question and outlines future research on mitigation and inequality. The question is relevant, because developing countries have come under growing pressure to introduce mitigation actions that help to reduce dangerous greenhouse gas emissions. These mitigation actions need to be ‘nationally appropriate’ (UNFCCC 2007) and different from those in the developed countries, taking the economic structures, poverty and inequalities into account. Mitigating emissions and reducing poverty at the same time sharpens the trade-­off. Governments need to decide on expenditure of limited resources on poverty or mitigation. According to previous research the need for such a trade-­off decreases when countries become richer (Ravallion et al. 2000). This implies that governments have a growing option to achieve both ends.

This paper serves as a background document for a research project that informs sustainable development planning through the analysis of developmental impacts of mitigation action.

Climate change and poverty mostly fall into the adaptation category in the current research literature and relevant policy-making. The strong connection between poverty and adaptation rests on the assumption that poor countries produce only low carbon emissions. They will also be most affected by the impacts of climate change. Therefore, efforts on poverty and climate change concentrate mostly on adapting to the consequences of climate change. If we acknowledge current findings of poverty research, we find that this separation between mitigation and adaptation does not hold anymore. Recent research suggests that poverty demographics have changed between 1990 and 2010. The majority of the poor nowadays live in middle-income countries, and not only in low-income countries. Emissions in middle-income countries increase, while their governments try to reduce emissions in the long term without jeopardising socio-economic development. Climate change presents a threefold policy challenge for middle-­income countries. They need to: i) design mitigation actions in such a way that they contribute to alleviate poverty; ii) reduce emissions, helping to slow global warming in a way that does not compromise the competitiveness of their economies, because without collective action by all, the costs of inaction affect mostly the poor; and iii) prepare to adapt to the unavoidable consequences of climate change. The paper unpacks the linkages between low-­carbon development, mitigation and poverty in middle-­income countries (where the majority of the poor live). Most middle-­income countries pursue carbon-­intensive development paths and will need to mitigate emissions towards low-­carbon development paths. How can mitigation actions contribute to poverty alleviation? An explorative analysis of mitigation actions in five middle-­income countries shows that mitigation has moved on the political agendas over the past five years. Yet, these efforts are not necessarily linked with poverty alleviation instruments. Most mitigation action can have positive and negative poverty effects. Their impacts depend on an adequate pro-­poor policy mix.

How to measure, report and verify (MRV) mitigation actions? This question calls growing attention in the international negotiations on climate change, because industrialized countries agreed to support developing countries in their efforts of reducing emissions through so-called ‘nationally appropriate mitigation actions’ (NAMAs). In the process of defining those NAMAs, the question stands out how the emission reductions can be verified. This case study illustrates the way ‘MRV’ works in the case of solar water heating. South Africa has no officially registered NAMAs in the United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change (UNFCCC) yet. Therefore, we chose one of the most advanced ‘mitigation action’, which is the roll out program for solar water heating, which is a key energy efficiency program. We find that the incentive system matters for collecting data for MRV. The responsible agency for the incentive needs to provide for data collection. The process becomes easier if previsions for MRV are already made in the stage of designing the policy. We recommend to design the MRV system of mitigation based on existing structures, such as the measurement and verification (M&V) standards, which apply to the monitor efficiency programs. We further recommend to make the data collection and management transparent, and to designate an independent, cross-sectorial agency to support the government in the data management and quality control, to ensure coherent and reliable reporting.

Most of the policy lessons concerning Science, Technology, Innovation (STI) policy promoted by international organizations derive from the experience of industrialized countries. The realities in later industrializing countries are different: inequality rates remain high, while poverty and redistribution dominate their political agendas. As a means to socio-economic development STI policy has increasingly gained importance in public policy in the developing world. This thesis seeks to understand how governments in later industrializing countries with high rates of inequality (LICHIR) legitimize and develop their STI policies. The author argues that governments in LICHIR face multiple and competing policy burdens. To overcome these burdens, political actors try to legitimize and to develop their STI policy responding to both domestic and international driving forces. These policy forces are fuelled by three sources of legitimacy: internationalization, technonationalism and social development. Evidence derives from a comparative analysis of the STI policy processes in South Africa and Brazil from 1990- 2010. Quantitative and qualitative data come from the Global Innovation Index, policy and research documents and a sample of 99 interviews with actors in government, industry and academia.

This thesis investigates the governance of two global challenges in terms of policy learning and collective action. The COVID-19 pandemic and anthropogenic climate change pose critical challenges to human well-being as much as they depend on collective responses to contain them. The comparative analysis of governance structures in climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic shows similarities and differences. A significant difference is the timing and pace of the responses: while international organisations and governments took drastic measures in response to the spread of the coronavirus, global and national responses for climate change have been comparatively slow. However, similarities emerge in the nature of the responses to these two global challenges: individual behavioural change is necessary to manage the challenges, which rarely occur without political guidance and public policy. The thesis combines the concepts of collective action and policy learning in a conceptual framework for the comparative analysis of global governance between the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change. The success of the rapid and large-scale coordinated response to the COVID-19 disease outbreak has indicated that these conceptual notions are required for global governance and that they can be harnessed on a large-scale to address a GPG or commons problem. Therefore, in order to more effectively address the GPG problem of climate change, these conceptual notions of global governance need to be harnessed not only between international organisations and governments but between governments and non-state actors. The shared policy challenges of both crises, therefore, highlight the importance of good policy design and the coordination of actors. The lessons identified can be broadly applied to the global commons problem of climate change and can help policy makers identify where enhanced policy learning and collective action is required. In particular this should be applied to coordinate policy learning and collective action from municipal to global levels and enhance the participation of the global public for long-term climate policy.

Current efforts from national governments in the fight against global warming are insufficient and studies suggest that reaching the agreed 1.5°C target is unlikely with existing pledges and targets. Transnational climate change governance (TCCG) has become increasingly pervasive and gained significant political, economic and environmental influence over the past years. However, such efforts are still dominated by actors from the Global North and have for a long time predominantly focused on mitigation. Furthermore, little insights exist into how certain factors are beneficial or detrimental to the success of TCCG. This study assesses the effectiveness of 17 transnational adaptation initiatives in the Global South and investigates how various factors contribute to or hinder the achievement of set goals. Based on documentary analysis and primary interview data, the effectiveness of the initiatives was measured on a three-point scale and crucial aspects with regards to actors, process design and meta-governance were identified. The study finds a strong bias towards coordinating actors from the Global North. Furthermore, stark asymmetries exist in information, resources, interests and power, especially between the North and South, which hinder the achievement of goals. A high level of institutionalization and strong internal organization were identified as beneficial for the effectiveness of transnational adaptation initiatives. In contrast to that, a lack of robust monitoring and evaluation (M&E) systems as well as insufficient funding significantly impede goal achievement. Adequate M&E is hampered by lack of standardization as well as low commitment and buy-in from stakeholders, while lack of funding can become problematic if initiatives are too dependent on one donor and an end to funding threatens the sustainability of a programme. Lastly, alignment with and conduciveness to international regimes and related frameworks as well as collaboration with other initiatives can be beneficial. The study concludes that it is important to strengthen the capacities of actors from the Global South in order to enable them to take over coordinating roles. Furthermore, transnational adaptation initiatives are recommended to invest into institutionalization and establishing good governance structures such as a secretariat with full-time staff and steering committee, as well as management measures. A robust M&E system is required that goes beyond the output level and is well communicated to all stakeholders. Multiple funding sources should be considered in order to avoid too much dependency on one donor and international frameworks should be used and transferred to local levels. Lastly, initiatives are recommended to keep a high level of flexibility in their operations and adapt to the local context.

The rapid and intensifying impacts of the changing climate and subsequent need to alleviate these have resulted in the synonymous pathway towards a global energy transition. Through enhanced national climate action plans, countries worldwide are formulating development pathways that are aligned to a carbon-neutral and net-zero emissions global economy. The recent IPCC Sixth Assessment report confirmed, once again, the urgency to reduce emissions to prevent catastrophic climate impacts. While nations have submitted their enhanced climate action plans, developing countries like South Africa battle with severe developmental challenges. The imperative to respond to climate change alongside addressing entrenched development challenges such as high unemployment, inequality, and poverty make it essential for the country's energy transition to be just. Frameworks theorising technological transitions predominantly originate from the global north. Thus, to avoid adopting frameworks from their place of origin and replicating them in different contexts, this study merges Geel's multi-level perspective (MLP) framework with the energy justice framework to have a better understanding of the composition of actors and discourse shaping South Africa's just energy transition debate. The study achieves this by operationalizing a range of qualitative discursive approaches, namely content and media frame analysis. Over an 11-year study period, online newspaper articles are used as a unit of analysis to develop actor categories, these are accompanied by frames (in the form of statements said by the identified actors). With the assumption of there being no agency at the landscape level of the MLP, landscape developments placing pressure on the regime identified from the analysis include the climate change phenomenon, pressure from the international community, and declining global demand for coal. At the regime level, actors engaging in activities reinforcing the status quo such as Eskom and members of business fell within the incumbent (core) actor category whereas actors who were identified as outsiders (i.e., those that openly criticize the regime by highlighting problems associated with it) mainly consisted of civil society groups. Within each actor category, actors use discourse that either stabilizes or destabilizes the regime. At the niche level, the financial intermediary role played by development finance institutions (DFI's) emerged as key to creating protective spaces for the adoption of renewable energy technologies throughout the study period. Finally, because of the varying levels of power and interactions between actors across the multiple levels of the country's energy transition, issues of fairness in decision-making (procedural justice), representation (recognitional justice) and share in costs and benefits of the regime and transition emerge (distributive justice).

In the last decades, the impacts of climate change have affected people, societies, economic sectors and ecosystems in all the continents and oceans. Climate change will make povertyalleviation harder by slowing down economic growth, eroding food security, and increasing and creating poverty traps. The poor, that are highly dependent on wildlife and natural resources for their persistence, will be affected the most. However, it seems that environmental priorities are not considered in the developmental agendas. If biodiversity and climate change are not included in policy domains other than the environmental, many negative effects will not be adequately mitigated or minimised. Addressing these multidimensional problems requires policy coherence for improving the outcomes of social and environmental policies, and for using more efficiently the limited resources that developing countries have. The overall aim of this study is to determine if there is coherence between the objectives of the National Development Plan and the sectoral programs of Mexico, with a special focus on climate change adaptation and mitigation, povertyalleviation, and biodiversity conservation. Through a discourse network analysis, it was possible to determine the policy components within each program and to systematically identify the connections between them and investigate if there was policy coherence. Since the documents analysed belong to two different levels of the government, it was possible to analyse vertical and horizontal coherence. The analysis showed that there is vertical coherence between the NDP and the sectoral programs, low coherence between the sectoral programs, as well as low coherence between the four policy components of major interest. This analysis increases the very scarce literature on Mexico's policy coherence, providing empirical evidence that allows finding windows of opportunity for improving the coherence between sectoral programs in the future.

In 2014, for the first time in its history, South Africa fed the national electricity grid with electricity generated through utility-scale renewable energy projects. The Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP) is the policy instrument driving this change. The process requires bidding private energy companies to commit resources in alleviation of local socio-economic needs. This thesis analyses the question how the institutions evolve in the implementation of community benefit requirements. The theoretical frameworks of institutional work and logics helps to analyse this new organizational field and interaction of various actors in government, industries and communities. An action research approach grounds this research empirically and aims to create the opportunity for actors to reflect on their actions and engagement in the community benefit implementation process. The research asks how are government, companies and communities shape institutions in the implementation of the community benefit requirements in South Africa's REIPPPP? The study first analyses the procurement requirements for community benefit and ownership, then, secondly, reviews the first 64 approved project bids for suggestions made in response to these requirements. A third research step involves fieldwork in 13 wind and solar projects across the country, the fieldwork consisting of interviews with project stakeholders about their experiences. The research negotiates access to an emerging and competitive, but also enquiring industry, one that has shared with the researcher important insights into its evolving community engagement and its development practices and considerations. The findings reveal that, in the implementation of South Africa's community renewables, government and companies dominate institutional work efforts in the stages of policy formulation and project development. But communities, the least informed and capacitated actor among the three, face the results and they have particular ways of responding, including corrective and disruptive ways. Reflective spaces are dominated by industry and strategically exclude communities from both asserting their experiences as well as from the opportunity to participate in creating collective understanding and agreeable processes that would foster the long-term relationship between company and community. This is a shortcoming that requires urgent attention to ensure positive institutional work and developmental impact.

"Zero emissions, zero poverty" has become an ambitious target to fight climate change and reduce poverty at the same time. In Kenya, eradication of extreme poverty through economic growth is one of the aims to be achieved by the Government of Kenya by 2030. Historically, economic growth has been directly linked to increased emissions. Poverty eradication through economic growth is proving to be challenging due to the fact that both developed and developing countries are expected to mitigate climate change through emissions reduction. Despite the challenge, Kenya has prioritised low carbon development as a means to eradicate poverty and mitigate climate change. "Clean coal" is one of the low carbon developments that the country has proposed. This study investigates how "clean coal" can assist Kenya to remain low carbon and develop properly. The analysis of the literature and qualitative data consists of three parts: the first analysis establishes the relationship between emissions and poverty in Kenya. The second part of the analysis assesses the literature on cost, environmental, social and economic consequences of clean coal as a low carbon development. The third component analyses the discourse of the actors involved in the decision-making process to understand the controversy for and against clean coal in Kenya. The study finds that there is possibly a link between poverty and emissions in Kenya and that improved socio-economic development results in increased emissions. The study also suggested that efforts to develop may be hindered by the increasing rate of inequality. The discourse analysis highlighted that Lamu Coal Power Plant may lead to economic development through employment and economic growth.; which comes at a high cost on environmental degradation (increased emissions and pollution) and increased deprivations (negatively impacted livelihood, health deterioration and displacement) that are likely to result in increasing poverty.

The purpose of this study is to analyse the development of South Africa's liquid fuels industry from 1930s to the present and the various ways in which the state has extended subsidies and other measures of support to liquid fuels producers. The nature and extent of government support to the South African liquid fuels industry has remained hidden for many years, due to the veil of secrecy surrounding the industry prior to the country's transition to democracy. The study expands past analyses to identify and estimate the magnitude of subsidies to liquid fuels production in South Africa in the present. Using the historical institutional approach, the study then places these measures of support in the South African political economy environment so as to understand the institutional barriers to their reform. In doing so, the study sheds light on the drivers informing the endurance of the liquid fuels subsidy regime and state support to the liquid fuels industry following the transition to democracy.

Through various policy mechanisms deployed in the last seven years, the South African government has pursued the localization of renewable energy manufacturing. These efforts are related to the Department of Trade and Industry's broader goals to industrialize the South African economy by increasing the range and value-add of domestically manufactured products. This thesis uses global value chain analysis to determine what ways local wind and solar manufacturing firms relate to this goal by pursuing innovation, upgrading, workforce development, and regional market penetration strategies. The author uses the theoretical framework of Vertically Specialized Industrialization (VSI) as outlined by Milberg, Jiang, and Gereffi as the basis for assessing firm-level governance strategies. The research was performed through semi-structured telephonic interviews with senior level staff at renewable energy firms and non-governmental organizations, as well as a review of public reports. The findings revealed that wind and solar firms are not significantly pursuing upgrading or innovation strategies as associated with VSI. This is likely the result of insufficient market demand and policy incentives, as well as competition from countries with comparative advantage.

Grassroots innovation has been recognized as a valuable means to empower local communities to address developmental issues. Enabling youth in townships to solve local problems is of particular interest in South Africa due to the poor socioeconomic conditions in these areas. These conditions include high unemployment rates amongst youth, which leads to youth disenfranchisement. There is a lack of support for grassroots innovation because it falls outside of mainstream support structures for innovation. Standard market incentives are less relevant for this socially driven form of innovation. Innovation competitions are a potential alternate mechanism to incentivize grassroots innovation. However, the danger with external incentives is that they can crowd out intrinsic motivation through the overjustification effect. Intrinsic motivation is necessary to increase creativity, performance and long-term engagement in an activity. Therefore, this study seeks to understand what motivates youth to take part in grassroots innovation activities, and how to use an innovation competition to provide appropriate incentives for these motivations. A gamification framework is used to analyse these motivations and the effects of incentives. This is an empirical study that focuses on Innovate the Cape, a high school innovation competition in Cape Town. Furthermore, given that this form of innovation in this developmental context is poorly understood, the learning processes are analysed. An innovation systems approach is used to explore the motivations of the actors and analyse their interactions within this institutional context. A qualitative study was conducted with 18 semi-structured interviews and 9 focus groups. The analysis revealed that participants had a broad range of motivations beyond the competition prize, which was seen more as a means to an end. Dominant motivations included making a social impact, social influence, personal development and the desire to learn. By taking these motivations into account, competition incentives can be used as a means to empower participants through rich learning experiences. Diverse interpersonal interaction and experiential learning were found to be vital components of the learning process. These components are sorely lacking in the local school system. There is a lack of accessible and relevant formal institutional support for early stage grassroots innovation. Furthermore, informal institutional factors underpinned many of the findings on the motivations and learning processes of the participants. On a systems level, it was shown that facilitating innovative behaviour on the grassroots level resulted in institutional building.

In South African urban-informal contexts characterized by high levels of unemployment, women still have a close relation to the household. Females shoulder most of the burden associated with fulfilling domestic energy requirements. Despite this, energy-poverty policies like the Free Basic Alternative Energy Policy of 2007 ignore the specific challenges faced by women such as the financial implications of procuring daily domestic energy. This study adds insight to this issue by adopting two approaches: firstly, this study explores views captured in twenty semi-structured interviews from a sample of 12 females and 8 males living in an informal settlement, located north of Durbanville in the Western Cape Province. This thesis relies on a case study design based on this informal settlement to describe the nuances and gender specific experiences which exist in managing domestic energy. Secondly, an unobtrusive research approach is taken, relying on an analysis of secondary data from online media and academic platforms. The data is analysed using Bachrach and Baratz (1962) guide to uncover power dynamics veiled in the formal processes of energy-poverty policy development in South Africa. This thesis asks how energy-poverty policy can contribute to addressing the so-called gender-energy-poverty nexus, recognising that social constructs of gender and policy formulation processes may be under-pinned by dynamics of non-decision-making. The main findings of the study show that attributes of non-decision-making which feature in both the formal and informal power dynamics perpetuate female hardships in energy management. Social norms (informal power dynamics) influence the division of household labour including domestic energy management, which renders energy a major pre-occupation for women particularly. Furthermore, not recognizing informality in energy-poverty policy (formal power dynamics) negatively impacts women's well-being as women are dissatisfied with poor performing cooking and lighting fuels which negatively impacts young children's health, including inadequate options for food storage due to limited appliance use in the un-electrified informal settlement. Recommendations for the Free Basic Alternative Energy Policy to address energy-poverty in a gender-sensitive way may help to alleviate the negative impacts of securing daily energy on female informal settlement dwellers.

Includes bibliographical references., This thesis investigates the transportation of wind turbines in an emerging wind energy market with a focus on South Africa. The research goal is to understand how the transport and the wind energy sectors interact; as well as how turbine transportation can unfold as a barrier to wind farm development in South Africa. Turbine transportation was found to be a key part of the wind farm development process which has been hampered in South Africa by poor planning, the design of the renewable energy procurement program and low cooperation amongst industry participants. Barriers to wind farm development include a shortage of logistics equipment such as cranes and trailers, a shortage of skilled drivers and crane operators and several embedded bottlenecks in the abnormal load transportation process. These factors combined have resulted in a cost premium of 5 - 10% for the turbine transportation process in South Africa as compared to the cost in larger established wind energy markets. The study additionally finds that the wind energy industry could benefit from better coordination of transport projects through industry bodies such as SAWEA, as the transport system is unlikely to be altered in order to accommodate the needs of the wind energy industry.

Includes abstract., Includes bibliographical references., This paper reviews how incentive mechanisms impact solar water heater (SWH) technology adoption under both monthly payment scheme (MPS) and non-monthly payment scheme (non-MPS) conditions. The key research problem is to try understand why consumers1 have not installed SWHs under non-MPS conditions and whether a MPS can generate better installation rates. SWHs generate clean energy by using the heat of the sun instead of electricity to heat household water. On average, SWHs displace 30 % of household electricity usage, decreasing both household electricity costs and national electricity supply. South Africa has favourable solar conditions and encouraging policy support in the form of long term targets and subsidy incentive schemes. However, it appears that these mechanisms are unable to rapidly incentivise South Africa’s mid to high income households to install SWH units. This paper reviews the MPS incentive mechanism, to examine if it can create a larger scale adoption of SWHs, with the key research question being: ‘How does the monthly payment scheme influence consumer behaviour and their likelihood of adopting solar water heater technologies in the City of Cape Town?’ An important corollary of the research is to gain an understanding of the nature and successes of MPSs in other SWH markets and industry environments. This paper uses case studies to examine successful MPSs in the US PV residential market and in Tunisia’s state-supported SWH program. In order to determine the likelihood of SWH adoption in Cape Town, existing consumer sentiment towards SWHs must be properly understood. Consumer attitudes, awareness and drivers to adopt SWHs will inform the likelihood of adoption, both under MPS and non-MPS conditions. Therefore, this paper investigates the three variables of attitudes, awareness and drivers and the ultimate likelihood of SWH adoption through a questionnaire targeted at respondents from mid to high income households in Cape Town.