CSO Networking – Climate and Energy – Outputs from the 12 February, 2019 meeting

Project 90 by 2030 arranged a networking meeting for NGOs involved in matters relating to energy, climate change, the environment and a just energy transition to get together, share what they are doing, now and in the future, and to agree on possible joint action.

The meeting was attended by:

Note: To avoid spam, the contact details for the attendees have not been shown here, however, they can be obtained from Project 90 by 2030.

Topics of interest (not in priority order):

After some brainstorming and cluster analysis, the group came up with these:

 On the African Continent – message of divestment.
 In SA – Environmental governance and public participation.
 Indigenous knowledge systems based education for the self-empowerment/determination.
of indigenous communities.
 Support progressive higher taxes and other measures to end inequality and build democracy.
 Transform the city: we need demonstrations of climate resilient homes/neighbourhoods.
 Prioritise climate change mitigation for Africa.
 Divest from oil, coal and gas – reinvest in the sustainable economy.
 Take and deepen the climate change and energy conversation to the grassroots level.
 Tariff transparency – what makes up energy, infrastructure and subsidy costs. Public need to
know what they are paying for.
 Organisational and structural planning for civil society organisations.
 On a daily basis people in SA are having the constitutional rights violated by breathing
polluted air harmful to health and wellbeing.
 Promote democratic renewable energy in the public sector – linked to transforming Eskom.
 Remove barriers to SSEG – linked to NERSA, DOE, Metros, Munics, Labour.
 Our under-resourced youth have the right to be equipped with climate change resilience
skills now.
 The Carbon budget regulations must be published – without this there will be no legal basis or
mitigation system.
 The Climate change Act must be promulgated.
 Linking energy democracy and national budget/public finance.
 Improvement of your public relations strategy: mobilise and conscientise the masses.
 Public art interventions: increase visibility of messages, take words off the paper, spark
collective public imagination, supplement political submissions.|
 Development of a climate change commission – inclusive, transparent and accountable, linked to the Climate Change bill.
 A coal phase-out plan must be developed; as per the recently released Energy Research Centre
alternative Integrated Resource Plan.
 Our Nationally Determined Contribution needs to be in line with 1.5 degree Celsius.
 Need sustainable development and ecological revolution as technical market driven
solutions still fit within the current power structure.
 A concentrated, coherent strategy to force government’s hand to make public a workable
Integrated Resource Plan.
 Need visibility of civil society sectors to put pressure on government to act speedily and
promote public participation.
 Advocating for equipped (resources and information) communities which will be able to
understand policies, benefit from and implement them.
 Increased role for municipalities and Metros to manage their entire electricity supply chain.
 Transparency and communication are vital for building trust between stakeholders – help
contribute to a just energy future.
 Focus on low-income solar PV/energy access (finance models and policies).
 Climate strikes to escalate at schools and workplace.
 Participation justice.
 Water is a human right.
 Encouraging and integrating SSEG into municipal grid – need models that work for all.
 No new coal! Authorising dirty, expensive harmful and unnecessary new coal plants is in
conflict with the constitution.
 South Africa urgently needs a just energy transition plan.
 Eskom must be restructured, to be fit for purpose.
 Rally around a just energy transition and get labour involved.
 Introduce a Basic energy grant (along the lines of a Basic Income Grant).
 Spotlight on political party manifestos on environment, climate change and energy. 10
questions and report cards.
 We believe that our country’s consumer choices have a major role to play in the arena of
climate-change and that veganism can significantly reduce our personal environmental
impact, requiring less water, energy & overall land-use (which will minimise the destruction
of natural forests & wild habitats).
 Alongside weaning our society off our dependence on fossil fuels, we also need to wean
ourselves off our dependency on animal agriculture/exploitation. New ways of producing
food, like stock-free (veganic) farming, can provide greater sustainability and bio-efficiency.

Prioritisation of action ideas:

With such a diverse group of organisations and people, it is not surprising that the list above is so big and covers such a wide range of ideas.

Therefore, so as not to dilute our collective efforts and spread ourselves too thinly, it was agreed to focus on four key areas. These are listed below together with organisations and individuals who would like to be involved in joint action in some way.

• WWF
• EMG
• CER
• P90
• Greenpeace
• Peter Atkins
• SEED