SA has the potential to create up to 275,000 green jobs by 2030, with the bulk of these jobs likely to come from the solar sector, a new study by Boston Consulting Group (BCG) shows.
The study, published by FSD Africa and Shortlist, with analysis from BCG, says SA is set to create 85,000-275,000 new green jobs in the next five years — mainly in energy and power production, and agriculture.
The research projects the solar sector to lead job creation in the jobs-starved country, with 140,000 pencilled in.
SA has plans to build 14,000km of new transmission lines in the next decade.
To this end, Eskom’s National Transmission Company SA (NTCSA) officially began trading in July.
The plan is to connect about 37GW of renewable energy to the grid.
The BCG study reads as renewable energy generation and climate-friendly agriculture are scaled up, Africa’s green economy will create more than 3-million jobs by 2030.
The report predicts the creation of 1.5-million to 3.3-million new direct green jobs across Africa, 70% of which will come from the energy and power sector. Of the 2-million jobs this sector is expected to generate, solar accounts for 1.7-million.
The sector with the second-highest job creation potential is agriculture and nature, which is forecast to add 700,000 jobs — over half of which would come from climate smart agricultural technology.
Most of the predicted jobs are skilled in nature, with 60% requiring some form of qualification. Of these, 30% will require vocational training and 10% university degrees.
“Crucially, these job types tend to attract higher salaries and will, therefore, play a central role in spurring the growth of the middle class in countries hosting these high-growth sectors,” the report reads.
The unskilled jobs created will offer “ladders up the employment scale for candidates, whose employability will be enhanced by access to training and experience”.
“Achieving these job creation outcomes requires supportive policies, infrastructure, and significant financial investments, estimated at over $100bn annually,” the report reads.
SA is in the process of transitioning away from fossil fuels and towards renewable energy. However, in an economy where the fossil fuel and heavy manufacturing sectors have historically played a key role in driving growth, this transition can be intimidating — particularly in carbon-intensive industries.
Many industry leaders are embracing the shifting landscape. A recent review by Nedbank investigated SA companies in the mining, iron and steel, coal, real estate and agriculture sectors and found that many large corporates had a firm understanding of climate resilience and decarbonisation, and had begun reducing their procurement of goods from high-carbon emitters.
Additionally, businesses in the fossil fuel and heavy manufacturing sectors were the most advanced in managing their carbon footprint, as they face increasingly rigorous compliance demands and the need for accurate carbon emissions reporting.
For SA exporters of carbon-intensive goods, the threat of decarbonisation has been accelerated by the EU’s carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM). Set to be implemented in the near future, the policy instrument will place a carbon tariff on select goods imported into the EU.
According to the SA Reserve Bank, CBAM could lower SA’s exports 10% by 2050, eliminating about 2.6-million jobs.
Mark Boshoff, head of climate resilience and sustainability strategy at Nedbank Commercial Banking, said CBAM’s potential implementation has motivated some corporates to pursue formal transition plans.
“There are clients who demonstrated very little desire to have an engagement on decarbonisation either now on in the future [but] changed their mind when advised of the CBAM that Europe is introducing to restrict ‘carbon-heavy’ imports with penalties,” said Boshoff.
“Similarly, many large corporates are now restricting procuring goods from high-carbon emitters who may be mainly reliant on carbon-heavy energy from Eskom as these large corporates need to reflect their scope 1, 2 and 3 levels and prefer purchasing goods from ‘greener’ suppliers.”
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.