Honourable Deputy President,
Honourable Ministers,
CEOs and Captains of Industry,
Representative from Academia,
Dignitaries and esteemed guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Thank you for inviting me to address you here at the Green Economy National Youth Summit under the theme “Youth participating in creating sustainable livelihoods and better environment through optimising on the opportunities presented by greening the economy and utilisation of alternative energy sources”.
As a responsible global citizen, we have set short, medium and long-term vision towards an environmentally sustainable, climate-change resilient, low-carbon economy and just society.
Our vision as a country is outlined in the National Strategy for Sustainable Development and Action Plan, the Green Economy Strategy, the New Growth Path and the National Development Plan and the National Climate Change Response Policy.
Our Climate Change Policy recognises that in the medium-term our interventions must include shifting to lower- carbon electricity generation that create green jobs. In this context, I want to speak on the issue of the Green Economy and its role in generating not only growth, but growth in a way that keeps humanity's footprint within planetary boundaries.
The 2008 economic recession, combined with growing national and international awareness about climate change and the need to shift to clean energy sources, offered us a unique opportunity to kick-start the transition to a green economy.
In the 2009 framework response to the international economic crisis, the South African government urged for the development of incentives for investment in programmes geared at creating large number of green jobs.
In 2010, we convened a National Summit on Green Economy under the overarching theme: “towards a resource efficient, low carbon and pro-employment growth path.” It was at this summit that we have made a conscious decision of championing the transition to a green economy and further identified thematic focus areas for intervention in South Africa.
Our response was with the Green Economy Strategy which has eight focus areas namely: green buildings and the built environment; sustainable transport and infrastructure, clean energy and energy efficiency; resource conservation and management; sustainable waste management practices; agriculture, food production and forestry; water management; sustainable consumption and production; and the cross-cutting focus area that covers research, awareness and skills development – in other building our social capital.
Implementation within the built environment include the national programme to bring sustainable resource use criteria into the design of the settlement projects and subsidized houses across the country, with special reference to housing densities, orientation of the buildings, roof overhangs and insulation, installation of 1 Million solar water heaters by 2014, and sustainable use of water and waste resources.
We have also realised that we must address one of the most pernicious, corrosive and troubling features of contemporary times, unemployment and more importantly to this audience - youth unemployment.
According to the New Growth Path, 2010, the core challenges hampering young people from participating meaningfully in the mainstream economy are joblessness, poverty, and inequalities. Young people are the most affected by unemployment.
The New Growth Path targets 300 000 additional direct jobs by 2020 to green the economy, with 80 000 in manufacturing and the rest in construction, operations and maintenance of new environmentally friendly infrastructure.
We also recognise that South Africa’s natural capital, in the form of ecosystems, biodiversity and other natural resources, is critical to unlocking and boosting economic growth and ensuring the long-term wellbeing of society.
The South African National Biodiversity Institute has calculated that our ecological goods and services are valued at 63 billion Rands and can create much needed green jobs.
Two weeks ago we launched the Groen Sebenza Programme with the South African National Biodiversity Institute –SANBI. The 300 million Rands Project is an initiative that promotes major skills development and job creation in the biodiversity sector for 800 unemployed graduates and matriculants. The intake consists of 500 graduates and 300 matriculants.
It is estimated that young people constitute about 25% of the working age population in the world, but they constitute 47% of the unemployed. In South Africa, the Quarterly Labour Force Surveys have consistently shown that young people constitute high percentage of the unemployed.
It is against this backdrop, that our discussion on green economy should take into consideration both the environmental as well socio economic aspect of development.
Ladies and gentlemen;
Today's generation of young people is the largest in history. Nearly half of the world's population is under the age of 25, with 90 per cent of these young people living in developing countries. In this regard, greener production and services can only flourish if national workforces are adequately skilled.
In this context, higher education is a critical agent in furthering sustainable development in society, particularly towards strengthening a knowledge economy and transformative practices associated with sustainable development and poverty eradication.
In line with the Green Economy Plan, measures are being implemented to strengthen and expand our economic growth through recycling and enterprise development so that we can generate and sustain jobs as well as formalise existing jobs in the waste area as part of the economy.
Our targets in the National Waste Management Strategy is that by 2015 we will have created 69 000 new jobs in the waste sector and 2 600 additional SMMEs and cooperatives participating in waste service delivery and recycling.
Ladies and gentlemen;
In order to effectively mainstream green economy in South Africa, leadership by governments, financial institutions and private investors is needed to address the green investment gap.In this regard, the Department of Environmental Affairs in conjunction with National Treasury, established an innovative funding mechanism for supporting green economy initiatives in the country, namely the national Green Fund.
The national Green Fund is a unique fund established through an initial allocation of R800 million from the Government of South Africa, that seeks to support green initiatives to assist South Africa’s transition to a low carbon, resource efficient and climate resilient development path delivering high impact economic, environmental and social benefits.
The primary aim of the Green Fund is to provide catalytic finance to facilitate investment in green initiatives – this includes funding green economy project initiation and development; research and development; and capacity building initiatives. Thus the fund helps to unlock barriers and supports the incubation of ideas and their movement along the innovation value chain.
The Green Fund will provide start-up or top-up funding for innovative and high-impact green economy programmes that supports the transitioning process to a greener economy which support poverty reduction and job creation. In addition, it will create an enabling environment for future investments.This is an exciting new initiative, providing a unique opportunity for government, financiers and the private sector to be directly involved in supporting innovative green economy initiatives.
Ladies and gentlemen,
During COP 17, government launched the South African Renewables Initiative (SARi) to support the rapid and ambitious scaling up of renewables in a manner that delivers economic, social and environmental benefits without incurring unacceptable domestic cost burdens.
SARi is dedicated to enabling the large-scale ramp up of the renewable energy industry in South Africa. Its objective is to establish financing arrangements to allow a critical mass of renewables to be developed, without incurring unacceptable domestic cost burdens.
An international partnership of governments and public partners has come together to support this effort and to seek to mobilise the scale of coordinated funding needed to realise this ambition.
Further initiatives to promote renewable energy, include the Renewable Energy Feed-in Tariff which is in essence, guaranteed prices for electricity supply rather than conventional consumer tariff. The underlying basic economic principle underpinning this incentive structure is the establishment of a tariff (price) that covers the cost of generation plus a ‘reasonable profit’ to induce developers to invest.
Therefore, it is imperative that structures to ensure sustainable employment and sustainable environments for young people are supported by all stakeholders.
Opportunities for youth in the renewable energy sector can be generated by government institutions, non-government institutions, and the private sector or can be purely self-employment.
Young people, when gainfully employed, represent a tremendous resource for developed and industrialised nations; they bring energy, creativity, and imagination to many nation-building tasks, from building infrastructure to preserving the environment.
Renewable energy is a means to combine the goals of youth employment (therefore income generation) and environmental protection, thereby contributing to sustainable development. One method to implement this potential link between youth employment and environmental protection is to develop youth-led enterprises to produce and market renewable energy sources.
Youth-led renewable energy enterprises are a viable means of achieving sustainable development, as they promote technologies that are less harmful to the global environment, while at the same time providing sustainable income-generating opportunities for youth.
The Department of Environmental Affairs is pioneering the pure electric zero emission green cars, customized for South African road conditions. Furthermore, we are providing a number of incentives to the private sector.
Just as an example, as part of implementation of our Green Economy initiatives, we have recently launched a Roadmap towards Electrical and Hybrid cars and car parts manufacturing. Finally, private investors will need to take a new approach to benefit from green investment opportunities.
Green infrastructure investment can provide attractive long-term, risk-adjusted returns. Private investors should not wait for perfect public policies to remove any reasonable risk. They can enhance comparative risk analysis of green investment by making greater use of investor forums and engagement with public finance agencies to advance new financing solutions that open up an attractive, sustainable market.
Government, the private sector and civil society need to be jointly and actively involved as partners in this process. The conservation and wise use of our natural capital which is valued, is key to ensuring a sustainable future and meeting our job-creation targets.
I conclude by calling an all of you to continue to walk with us on this path of championing sustainable development – for the sake of our people, our planet and our prosperity.
I thank you!
