Enabling the Just Energy Transition: Creating a socially inclusive future

When we talk about the Just Energy Transition (JET), we tend to focus only on gigawatts, emissions targets and investment flows. At its core, however, the Just Transition is not only about energy: it is about people. The choices we make in the next decade will shape whether this transition deepens inequality or whether we seize one of the greatest opportunities in our history to address unemployment, poverty and exclusion.

The urgency of the climate challenge is undeniable. Global average temperatures have already risen by about 1.1°C above pre-industrial levels. The Paris Agreement commits us to limiting warming to 1.5°C, requiring global net zero by mid-century. South Africa is the 15th largest global emitter because of the country’s heavy dependence on coal – in 2024, 82% of the country’s energy was still generated by coal. Our Nationally Determined Contribution commits us to peak emissions between 2025 and 2030 and to achieve net zero by 2050. The energy transition is a climate necessity, but it must be a just one to avoid worsening the socio-economic challenges in our country.

In South Africa, climate action cannot be separated from social reality. The mining sector contributed about 6% of South Africa's GDP in 2024, translating to over R450 billion. One in two youth in SA is out of work, with young women especially likely to be unemployed. Without deliberate planning, the energy transition could trigger mass job losses, deepen marginalisation  and fuel instability. With the right approach, however, it can help close the unemployment gap, give women and youth opportunities and tackle energy poverty at its roots. The global clean energy transition could create 10.3 million net new jobs by 2030 , but only if countries invest in reskilling, inclusion, social protection and regionally tailored policies.

There are already concrete examples we can learn from when it comes to inclusive skills development:

UNDP’s JET Skills Programme: By mid-2025, nearly 200 students across Mpumalanga and Limpopo had graduated from UNDP South Africa’s Energy Efficiency Skills Programme (EESP). The first cohort of students, mostly women from rural areas, were trained to install, repair and maintain solar photovoltaic systems. The second cohort were trained as Energy Performance Practitioners, certified to audit and enhance energy performance of buildings. With most of the graduates being women, this represents a target effort to increase women’s representation in technical fields within the green economy.

• The African Women in Energy and Power (AWEaP) Just Energy Transition Skills Development Programme targets women in the power and energy sector to enable them to drive JET initiatives at local level, stimulating micro-economies and increasing market access for companies owned and led by women, youth and persons with disability. The ultimate goal of the programme is to ensure that women, youth and people with disabilities are leading local-level solutions that contribute towards the JET.

The value of investing in women goes beyond gender equity. For example, a 2021 study by the Bank for International Settlements found that every 1 percentage point increase in women in managerial roles is linked to a 0.5% reduction in CO₂ emissions. 

South Africa’s JET Investment Plan is estimated to require R1.5 trillion of investment over five years – as at mid-2025, around R230 billion has been pledged, leaving a significant gap. A key question is not just whether capital will flow, but whether it will flow inclusively to create social impact. Tshikululu participated in South Africa’s JET, a strategic initiative by the Presidency, by providing technical support services to the JET Funding Platform. The platform was launched in 2024 to enable projects and donors around the country to be registered and matched to create funding partnerships. Two rounds of matching have already been completed as part of this collaborative initiative to bridge the gap between funders and JET-aligned projects.

Globally, we are also seeing innovative models of blended finance bringing funders together to fund large-scale, high-impact projects with a focus on the most vulnerable people. For example, the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP) – a $10 billion coalition launched by Rockefeller Foundation, IKEA Foundation and Bezos Earth Fund and supported by global institutions and partners – is investing in clean energy in developing economies. It demonstrates how smart blended finance can unlock impact at scale with a strong focus on equity as part of responding to the climate crisis.

With our long history of social investment and a well-developed financial sector, investing in inclusive transition is a space where South Africa can lead by designing finance that not only decarbonises infrastructure but also invests in reskilling, inclusion and community resilience. The Just Transition is a social contract as well as a technical project. To enable it, we need unprecedented collaboration between government, business, labour and communities. At Tshikululu, we see our role as enabling partnerships and investments that build skills pipelines for youth, support women-owned and youth-led enterprises and ensure vulnerable communities are not left behind.

The Just Energy Transition is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to invest in changing the systems that perpetuate exclusion. If we reduce it to an energy issue, we risk failure – but if we embrace it as both an energy and a social transition, we can power a future that is cleaner, fairer and more inclusive.

Leanne Emery-Hunter,  Tshikululu CEO