Cleaner Energy Cooler Climate

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Developing sustainable energy solutions for South Africa Energy and climate change are issues of critical importance for shaping a sustainable future, both in South Africa and globally. For South Africa, finding a policy approach which balances the increasing demand for energy with the need for sustainability, equity and climate change mitigation is a particular challenge. This book provides an innovative and strategic approach to climate policy, with local development objectives as its starting point. Through energy modelling, indicators of sustainable development and policy analysis, Harald Winkler builds a rich and detailed case study illustrating how a development-focused approach to energy and climate policy might work in South Africa. Moreover, with recent record-setting global crude oil prices, this book points out that making energy supply and use more sustainable is a central challenge in South Africa's future development path. An energy researcher, IPCC author (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) and a member of the South African delegation to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, Winkler offers a nuanced examination of where the synergies and trade-offs lie, and makes clear the imperative of considering long-term implications when meeting short-term needs.

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Abbreviations, acronyms and units

1. Introduction

• Energy, sustainable development and climate change in South Africa
• Outline of the book

2. Sustainable development, energy and climate change

• Working definition of sustainable development
• Energy for sustainable development
• Sustainable development and climate change
• Sustainable development paths as an approach to mitigation
• Conclusion

3. Starting from development objectives

• The broader context
• The policy environment in the energy sector
• The role of electricity in development
• Economic and institutional aspects
• Social dimensions and the residential sector
• Environmental impacts
• Conclusions: Comparing and assessing

4. Options for energy policy

• Affordable access to electricity
• Energy governance – to privatise or not?
• Managing energy-related environmental impacts
• Economic development and instruments
• Securing electricity supply through diversity
• Conclusion

5. Modelling energy policies

• Focus of policy modelling
• Drivers of future trends and key assumptions
• The base case
• Overview of policy cases
• Residential energy policies
• Electricity supply options
• Conclusion

6. Assessing the implications of policies

• Residential energy policies
• Electricity supply options
• Conclusion

7. Indicators of sustainable development

• Sustainable development indicators
• Economic
• Environmental
• Social
• Comparisons and conclusions

8. Developing sustainable energy for national climate policy

• Implementing sustainable residential energy policies
• Choosing electricity supply options for sustainability
• Options for South Africa’s mitigation policy

9. Implications for international climate change negotiations

• Proposals on the future of the climate regime
• Sustainable development policies and measures
• Would SD-PAMs make a difference?
• The future of the climate change framework

10. Conclusion

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Dr Harald Winkler is Programme Leader for Energy, Environment and Climate Change in the Energy Research Centre at the University of Cape Town. Dr Winkler is also lead author on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Working Group III for the Fourth Member of the South African delegation to the negotiations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. He is a member of the International Society of Ecological Economics and was a member of the Standards Advisory Board of the WWF Carbon Label for CDM projects 2002 – 2005.