ABSTRACT

Strong climate institutional governance is necessary for countries to meet their international climate mitigation commitments. This article shows that while South Africa steadily created climate institutions up to 2011, these failed to take hold in the following years. Also, despite the systemically critical energy sector dominating the emissions profile, these climate institutions had no purchase over it. This situation is largely due to South Africa’s political economy of energy, which gave powerful actors the sustained ability to block meaningful institutionalisation of decarbonisation in the energy sector. As a result, South Africa’s climate institutions play few of the roles expected for successful institutionalization of climate action, with energy institutions instead playing a shadow climate governance role. This case suggests that conceptions of climate institutional governance in countries where single sectors dominate in emissions and power must accommodate the roles of institutions affecting climate outcomes despite this not being their primary objective.

摘要

强有力的气候制度治理对于各国履行其国际气候减缓承诺是必要的。本文表明，虽然南非在 2011 年之前稳步创建了气候机构，但这些机构在接下来的几年中未能站稳脚跟。此外，尽管具有系统重要性的能源部门在排放状况中占主导地位，但这些气候机构并没有购买它。这种情况主要是由于南非的能源政治经济，这使强大的参与者有能力阻止能源部门有意义的脱碳制度化。因此，南非的气候机构在气候行动成功制度化方面几乎没有发挥预期的作用，能源机构反而扮演了影子气候治理角色。