Background
Finance in support of technological and societal changes for a net zero, climate resilient future is a contested political battleground not only in South Africa. Climate finance is a delicate policy issue, not only in terms of distributional conflict but also in terms of procedural and recognitional legitimation: Who gets what? Who qualifies to unlock funds classified as climate finance and how? Which financial flows do different actors recognise as climate finance? This lecture spoke to the emerging climate policy arena and maps actors, coalitions and contestations associated with implementing South Africa’s updated Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) and its associated Just Energy Transition Partnership (JET-P).
Speakers
Dr Theophilus Acheampong
Dr Theophilus Acheampong is an economist and political risk analyst with over ten years of experience working with governments, private investors and international organisations on natural resource governance and public financial management issues. He has worked as an independent consultant on various global energy industry projects, particularly upstream oil and gas, and in providing economic analysis and market research focused on frontier emerging markets. He co-edited a Palgrave MacMillan book titled “Petroleum Resource Management in Africa: Lessons from Ghana”, which examines the challenges and opportunities from ten years of oil and gas production in Ghana.
Dr Britta Rennkamp
Dr Britta Rennkamp is an ACDI senior researcher who focuses on climate policy and technology in developing countries and the links between poverty, inequality, energy and climate change mitigation. Britta analysed renewable energy and nuclear programmes, carbon taxation, and green industrial and innovation policies in her previous work. She has published various papers and book chapters on integrating policies on emissions reductions, energy supply and development in Africa and Latin America. She has sixteen years of international work experience in sustainable development research, consulting and teaching, which she acquired in Brazil, Germany and South Africa. She holds a PhD in Political Science.
Dr Nikiwe Solomon
Dr Nikiwe Solomon is an environmental anthropologist working at the interface of science, technology, politics and urban river and water management. Her PhD dissertation research, ‘The Kuils Multiple: An ethnography of an urban river in Cape Town’, explored the entanglement of the Kuils River with social, technical and political worlds in the context of urban planning in a time of climate change. Her research interests lie in exploring and understanding the relationship between humans and the environment in cultural production. In a broad sense, her research focuses on how human and ecological well-being and sustainability issues are entangled with politics, economics and technology.
Dr Wikus Kruger
Dr Wikus Kruger is the research lead and lecturer on power sector investment in sub-Saharan Africa at the Power Futures Lab, based at the University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business. His research focuses on measures to accelerate investment, particularly in renewables, through structured procurement programmes such as auctions. Dr Wikus Kruger has been working in the African energy sector for 14 years. He holds a PhD from UCT; an MSc from Antwerp University; and MPhil, BPhil and BA degrees from Stellenbosch University.