Five years since the establishment of the Presidential Climate Commission, South Africa's Just Transition seems to be faltering. A new groundWork report warns that while climate policy frameworks exist, entrenched fossil-fuel interests and weak implementation are leaving communities behind.

It has been just over five years since the Presidential Climate Commission (PCC) was established to usher in the Just Transition in South Africa. With global temperatures hitting record highs and the 1.5°C limit projected to be breached by 2029, the PCC was tasked with building a "national consensus" on the decarbonisation of SA's economy.

For the first time in the country's history, the commission created a table where government, big business and grassroots activists sat as equals to dismantle the nation's coal dependency in a manner that would put the socioeconomic and environmental rights of people first.

However, the honeymoon period of the Just Transition is beginning to fade, and the consequences of the decommissioning of Komati are still being felt on the ground. The question remains: Who really holds the power to drive the Just Transition?

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Through its new report, groundWork attempts to answer the question.

Launched on Monday, 23 March, An Imbalance of Power: The Just Transition, the Life After Coal campaign and the Presidential Climate Commission, 2020 to 2025, suggests that while the "architecture" for justice has been built, cracks in the foundations are already starting to show.

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