SADC’s response to climate change – the role of harmonised law and policy on mitigation in the energy sector

Abstract

The negligible levels of energy-related GHG emissions attributable to the Southern African sub-region translates into the sub-region contributing relatively little towards global climate change. Notwithstanding, the member states comprising the Southern African Development Community (SADC) are among the most vulnerable to the trans boundary effects of global climate change. Existing SADC climate change policy documents highlight the important role of the energy sector in climate change mitigation. Furthermore, various international, African Union and SADC legal instruments stress the crucial role of harmonised law and policy as climate change adaptive measure. It is the central hypothesis of this paper that harmonised sub-regional law and policy aimed at regulating SADC member states’ mitigation efforts in the energy sector is a crucial climate change adaptive strategy. This hypothesis is based on the mandates for the formulation of a SADC climate change action plan and for mitigation in the energy sector. These mandates are contained in the texts of the SADC-CNGO Climate Change Agenda, 2012 and the Southern Africa Sub - Regional Framework on Climate Change, 2010 respectively. It is the main aim of this paper to investigate recent developments in the formulation of harmonised SADC law and policy on climate change in general and law and policy pertaining to mitigation in the energy sector specifically. In achieving the stated aim, themes to be investigated by means of a literature study are those of energy-related greenhouse gas emissions and global climate change and harmonised sub-regional policy on mitigation in the energy sector as adaptive measure in the SADC.

Regional disaster risk management strategies for food security: Probing Southern African Development Community channels for influencing national policy

“…SADC as a regional bloc reckons that there is a need to develop policies to tackle challenges. Barnard (2014) states that:…”

Evidence to Inform Resilience Policy in the SADC: Current Limitations and Future Research Areas

“…Niang et al [86], Thomas and Twyman [87], Twomlow et al [88], and Nhamo et al [89] all center on the effects of climate change, while Mendis et al [85], Lippmann et al [90], Obi et al [93], and Vanmeulenbrouk et al [94] focus on themes relating to the burden of disease, with respective reference to HIV/AIDS and malaria in the region. The content of other selected publications further illuminates their environmental focus, including investigating the mitigating effects of ecological interventions, such as different woodlands [95] and agroforestry [96], on the environmental impact of climate change, as well as the role of both learning and knowledge exchange between urban policymakers [97] and the legislative and policy environment of the energy sector toward climate change adaptation [98]. Publications related to the social theme investigate, inter alia, training and capacity development in support of populations affected by HIV/AIDS [99], resource management by local communities within specific sector [100], education on sustainable development, with some reference to the South African case [101], and factors relevant to mitigating the impact of COVID-19 [102].…”