ÍøÒ×ÌåÓý the project

The Climate Change and Inequality research project at SCIS aims to generate research and evidence for climate and social policy which supports climate justice and a transformative just transition. The project explores the intersections between inequality and climate change in the global South. The project conceptualises inequality broadly, including issues of economic inequality, as well as inequality associated with gender, race, ethnicity and geography.

These intersections play out along three main axes. First, the responsibility for causing climate change is not shared by all humans, as countries in the global North and wealthy people have much higher carbon emissions per capita than the global average. Second, there are inequalities in the impacts of climate change, which are disproportionately experienced by people in the global South. Third, there is inequality in access to resources to address climate change for many countries in the global South, but particularly for lower income groups.

There are four overarching research questions within this project:

• Is the ‘just transition’ (discourse and practice) in the global South, as it is currently unfolding, exacerbating or reducing inequality?
• How can a gendered approach to just transition help reduce inequality through concepts of care and social reproduction?
• What kinds of macroeconomic policy can support structural transformation, redistribution, and decarbonisation in global South countries?
• How can south-south solidarities inform energy and climate policy?

These questions are currently being explored in the following sub-projects:

• Towards a gender just transition: Principles and perspectives from the Global South – This paper proposes a set of principles for a gender just transition, based on empirical literature from the global South and theoretical contributions by feminist scholars.
• Towards a Just Climate Financing Regime for the Just Energy Transition Investment Plan (JET IP) – This project was commissioned by COSATU to briefly review the JET IP and understand its implications for workers, propose an alternative set of principles and approaches to financing the just transition, and advocate for social ownership within the just transition.
• Just Transition Consortium for Research on Employment and Work – This consortium is led by the SCIS and includes Wits University and Rhodes University. It takes a holistic approach to understanding the labour market changes in the just transition. It will examine the changing size, structure and income dynamics in the labour market, support development of an appropriate skills strategy, and advance proposals for the adequate provision of social protections. This project is commissioned by the Presidential Climate Commission.
• Care-Climate Nexus – This project aims to develop the conceptual understanding of the care-climate nexus by bringing together a group of leading feminist economists and climate experts working at this intersection, producing several think pieces and seminars on the topic.
• Social ownership and inequality - This project examines how models of social ownership in the economy can be used to address both wealth and income inequality in post-apartheid South Africa in the context of a transition to a low-carbon economy.
• Macro-fiscal impacts of transition – This project explores the macroeconomic implications of climate change and the just transition, including impacts on municipalities and structural transformation more broadly. The first working paper focuses on the energy transition in South Africa and can be found here.
• Gender in the Just Energy Transition in South Africa – This project will develop a comprehensive analysis of gender dynamics in the low-carbon transition in South Africa, including gendered impacts of transition and opportunities in new green sectors.
• Industrial Policy for a Just Transition in Africa – This project explores the implications of climate change, decarbonisation and the just transition on critical mineral extraction and industrialisation in South Africa, Ghana, Zambia, Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo. It will produce policy recommendations, a learning network, and country-specific reviews.