The Presidential Climate Commission's strategic planning session sets the stage for a transformative five-year agenda, aiming to turn climate policy into a powerful driver of South Africa's industrial growth.
Image: IOL FILE
The Presidential Climate Commission concluded its first strategic planning session for the new cohort of Commissioners, to consolidate its five-year priorities and programme of work as an independent statutory advisory body in terms of the Climate Change Act.
With overwhelming consensus, we agreed that our next five years will be characterised by a shift towards more delivery-oriented advisory work.
This practically means that we will be advancing a set of high-impact programme pipelines, including the Komati Power Station redevelopment, grid-related interventions, targeted climate awareness initiatives, and the Just Transition Financing Mechanism and other funding instruments as immediate vehicles for demonstrating the just transition in action.
Good progress has already been made: Working Groups are now operational, and the Commission is positioned to move decisively into implementation, guided by three core priorities:
From obligation to opportunity, SA's unique advantage:
South Africa has made important progress in building a credible climate policy architecture, particularly through the Climate Change Act.
Climate Policy is an economic engine, and our response must now be reframed as industrial strategy, not just an environmental obligation.
However, we are at risk of anchoring our national response too narrowly around compliance, reporting, and carbon budgets.
The real question before us is: How do we turn climate action into a driver of growth, competitiveness, and sovereignty?
We are not starting from zero — we have structural advantages: including energy transition platform through the Just Energy Transition Partnership and hopefully building from this, an adaptation and resilience platform (JAR IP) will emerge by end of 2026.
Globally, capital is flowing toward green industries at unprecedented scale, and if we position correctly, South Africa can become a green manufacturing hub, a clean energy exporter and a critical minerals processing leader.
However, if we do not, we risk deindustrialisation and self-isolation in the doldrums of low-value production in global value chains.
The opportunity is to integrate these into a coherent green industrialisation strategy, not treat them as parallel workstreams through:
In assessing the climate finance landscape, we are seeing strong investor appetite; however, pipeline development and coordination gaps persist.
This underscores the need for stronger cross-ministerial strategic alignment, particularly with the Ministry of Finance, to jointly unlock this catalytic opportunity for a just transition.
We need a whole-of-government delivery mechanism anchored at the centre, with the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment playing a strategic driving role, not just a regulatory one.
Building on existing structures, the current Just Energy Transition Inter-Ministerial Committee could be mandated to become a broader Climate Response IMC, with a mandate that spans the full climate–economy interface, including industrialisation, finance, and implementation coordination.
The role of local government in the context of its current policy and structural reforms will require collaboration and strong partnerships on localising climate action through stronger support for municipal implementation, early-warning and adaptation systems, and community-led development models in affected regions.
South Africa has a narrow window to position itself as a green industrialisation superpower in the Global South.
If we get this right, climate policy will not constrain our growth, it will define the next era of South Africa’s industrialisation.
The commission is uniquely positioned to bridge government, business, labour, and civil society, provide independent, evidence-based advice and Support social compacting around difficult trade-offs.
We are ready to support convergence on a common economic narrative, convene key stakeholders around sectoral transition pathways and help translate policy into implementable, investable programmes.
In our advisory role – we see the logical deal breaker as the move from frameworks to execution and a shift from compliance to competitiveness and deliberately transitioning from risk mitigation to economic transformation.
We are committed to deliver on this mandate, alongside a deliberate effort to leverage political capital across government and with key domestic and international partners to accelerate implementation and impact.
Dorah Modise is the executive director at the Presidential Climate Commission.
Dorah Modise, Executive Director at the Presidential Climate Commission.
Image: Supplied
Follow Business Report on Facebook, X and on LinkedIn for the latest Business and tech news.