South Africa’s Energy Transition

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-ix

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Andrew Lawrence

   Pages 1-19

3. Competing Paradigms for Understanding Energy Transitions

   • Andrew Lawrence

   Pages 21-57

4. Eskom and the Dual Character of the South African State

   • Andrew Lawrence

   Pages 59-83

5. Non-RE Alternative Energies: Nuclear, Geothermal, Fracking and Offshore Gas

   • Andrew Lawrence

   Pages 85-98

6. REIPPPP: Renewables’ Rise, or REIPPPP RIP?

   • Andrew Lawrence

   Pages 99-114

7. Conclusion: Just an Energy Transition—Or a Just Transition?

   • Andrew Lawrence

   Pages 115-152

8. Back Matter

   Pages 153-177

   PDF

This book provides a succinct overview of the evolution of policies addressing energy and climate justice in South Africa. Drawing on a range of analytical perspectives, including socio-technical studies, just transitions, and critical political economy, it explains why South Africa’s energy transition from a coal-dependent, centralised power generation and distribution system has been so slow, and reveals the types of socio-political inequalities that persist across regimes and energy sources. Topics explored include critical approaches to the South African state and its state-owned energy provider, Eskom; the political ecologies of coal and water; the politics of non-renewable energy alternatives; as well as the trajectory and fate of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producers Procurement Programme (REIPPPP), the country’s major renewable energy policy. The book concludes with reflections on alternative, neglected energy and development paths, suggesting how the political economy of South Africa’s energy system could be further transformed for the better.

• Energy Transition
• Energy Policy
• Community Energy
• Renewable Energy
• Energy and Empowerment
• Minerals Energy Complex
• Energy and Climate Justice
• Energy Justice
• Geothermal Energy
• Challenger Energy
• South Africa
• Environmental Geography
• energy security

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“This is a closely researched, compelling case for the renewal of efforts to set South Africa and beyond onto a trajectory of transition to renewable energy. It is not the first nor, unfortunately despite its merits, the last word on South Africa's impoverished response to climate change and other aspects of environmental degradation, but it neatly and convincingly demonstrates the need to go beyond the technicalities of energy provision to politics and power, from the local to the global.” (Ben Fine, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), UK)“

Lawrence's book is exceptionally useful, as it provides a vital synthesis and comparative approach to our ongoing - and potentially catastrophic - addiction to coal, explaining the vested interests behind the government's renewable-energy lethargy.” (Patrick Bond, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa)

• Wits School of Governance, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

  Andrew Lawrence

Andrew Lawrence is a research fellow at Wits School of Governance, South Africa and Visiting Professor at Vienna School of International Studies, Austria. He has written extensively on South Africa and the comparative and global political economy of energy. Publications include Employer and Worker Collective Action: A Comparative Study of Germany, South Africa, and the United States (2014).

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