Subnational climate change governance in South Africa

Albertus Schoeman

Chapter 13 in Decentralized Governance and Climate Change, 2025, pp 254-265 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: The nature of South African devolution and the intergovernmental fiscal framework places varying constraints on subnational governments’ capability to respond to climate change. Individual provinces and local governments present examples of climate innovation, and the National Treasury has made important initial progress in mainstreaming climate considerations into public finance systems, including in areas of budgeting, infrastructure planning, climate finance, and asset management. A more comprehensive climate response is, however, undermined by uneven levels of capacity and climate ambition across the intergovernmental system, with competing challenges of poverty, unemployment, and inequality creating a complex political economy around energy sector reform and the prioritization of scarce resources. Tensions around the climate response are reflected in the intergovernmental framework arising from the uneven spatial effects of the energy transition and a broader context of municipal dysfunction. Despite initial progress in mainstreaming the climate response, greater effort will be needed in strengthening intergovernmental climate governance.

Keywords: Climate change governance; South Africa climate change; Intergovernmental relations; Just transition; Subnational climate governance; Intergovernmental coordination (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
ISBN: 9781035356379
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