Jobs are not the answer – ownership is. That’s the analysis from a Port Elizabeth academic who says desperate communities and the looming crisis of climate change could simultaneously be tackled by grassroots innovation in the recycling, food, water and energy sectors.
“We need to re-purpose every abandoned warehouse and un-used rooftop and use them to recycle waste to make new stuff, grow intensive food gardens, harvest water and install micro-energy generators,” says Nelson Mandela University development studies Township Transition project coordinator Patrick Brennan.
This decentralised production, owned by ordinary people, many of them jobless, could be used to sustain families, or whole communities could partner to market their products including electricity to the national grid, he said.
Brennan was speaking at the Pathways for a Just Transition workshop hosted by the National Planning Commission in Port Elizabeth on Thursday (February 28 2019).
“These activities also cut to the heart of the latest IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) report and how we are going to transition to a low carbon, climate resilient and sustainable economy. “It’s do-able and it can be implemented immediately.
“Jobs are not the answer. Ownership of assets that we produce locally ourselves is what will save us.”
The October 2018 IPCC report said to avoid making the planet unliveable the global temperature rise had to be kept below 1.5°C over pre-industrial times.
To avoid reaching this level by 2030, however, a radical reduction in greenhouse gas emissions is required.
The National Planning Commission’s work is underpinned by chapter five of government’s National Development Plan which envisages that by 2030 South Africa “will have made headway towards becoming just and sustainable, resilient to the effects of climate change”.
The National Planning Commission, a government agency headed by Tasneem Essop, is on a road trip to engage different stakeholders around the country on this vision and to chart the best pathway to achieve it.
The aim is this pathway will be captured by August in a social compact. Essop told participants at the workshop at the Nelson Mandela Stadium on Thursday the commission had identified several proposed guiding principles including the need for full cost accounting to factor in the impacts of for instance the coal industry on human health and the environment.
An ecosystem approach which recognised the overarching value of the natural environment over the economy was another proposed guiding principle which was now up for review, she said.
One of the workshop delegates, Wildlife and Environment Society and NoPENuke representative Gary Koekemoer, said community micro-energy installations would help stem the dangerous plague of illegal power connections.
He said while Algoa Bay was a key asset for Port Elizabeth, residents were finding it difficult to make themselves heard on enterprises like off-shore bunkering and fish farming despite huge possible impacts.
“With confusing jurisdictions falling under different departments, and the developmental focus of Operation Phakisa – how do we get a voice?” Nomfusi Titi of the Phapamani Rape Crisis Centre said land was central to a just transition because large poor families were crowded into tiny homes and this was often a catalyst for domestic abuse.
Ulrich Steenkamp of Earthlife Africa said biogas projects to harvest methane for cooking should be introduced for all households and schools.
He compared the trash pollution in Soweto in Johannesburg and Soweto-on-Sea in the Bay and argued that the difference was the vigorous metro cash-for-recyclables programme in Johannesburg.
Hiten Parmar of the National uYilo eMobility Programme said improving public transport systems and introducing hybrid and electric alternatives would reduce air pollution, slash South Africa’s greenhouse gas output and cut fuel import costs.
The Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber called for greater policy alignment from government and said skills training in new generation technology was key to galvanising South Africa’s large youth population.