Addressing fragmentation in the South African renewable energy governance effort: Lessons to be learnt from France

Abstract

The drive towards increased renewable energy generation and its application in South Africa are codified in a variety of policy documents and pieces of legislation, which together embody the national renewable energy legal framework. In many instances these legal instruments differ in terms of the nature of the field of law influencing their objectives and the governmental department of their origin. This situation is generically labelled as fragmentation and is widely seen as a hindrance to the achievement of the Constitutional objective of promoting sustainable development in South Africa. By necessary implication, integration is proposed as the solution to fragmentation and it is in this regard that this study puts forward the French approach to legal and institutional integration as a possibility for South Africa. The study presents the French energy transition legal framework for consideration by the South African legislature as a potential roadmap towards a more holistic and integrated renewable energy governance effort. In pursuing this objective, the study discusses the suitability of the French approach in the South African context and concludes that a hybrid of the French governance framework could fruitfully be applied locally.

Legal regulations and policy barriers to development of renewable energy sources in South Africa

“…As mentioned above, institutional fragmentation is a barrier that hinders the country from reaching its renewable energy potential that is not constrained by regulatory red-tape and politically wellconnected interest groups in the coal and nuclear sectors [8]. This is a result of various governmental departments explicitly and inexplicitly influencing regulations.…”

“…The Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Programme (REIPPP) was introduced in 2011 as a procurement programme initiative. By 2019, under this initiative, there were 92 projects and 6327 MW of renewable energy technology [8]. The two most dominant renewable energy technologies in IRP2019 were wind and solar PV.…”

“…The basis of this paper supports this view and aims to address the evident fragmentation in governance that hinders energy efficiency in South Africa. Furthermore, the legal frameworks regulating these sectors are in most cases not aligneda situation which contributes directly to exacerbating the existence and effects of legal and institutional fragmentation [8]. For instance, along different stages of generating and distributing renewable energy, water, agriculture, forestry, and transport are linked to the process [3].…”