There is significant tension not so much between the need for economic development and the need for climate action, but rather between the losses expected to be incurred as a result of climate inaction and the immense opportunities for growth that result from taking action, World Wide Fund for Nature programme manager Louise Naudé has said.

Speaking during a panel session at the Southern African Venture Capital and Private Equity Association’s 2022 conference, in Johannesburg, on May 26, she said the idea that we have to somehow balance socioeconomic and environmental needs to effect a just energy transition was a false dichotomy, because pursuing climate goals would create immense socioeconomic opportunity.

She said climate change stood to destroy many of the developmental gains made in Africa through extreme weather events – such as the flooding experienced in KwaZulu-Natal during April – which meant that any investments in infrastructure should have climate change top of mind right from the beginning.

This would not only better protect the investment but also allow for that investment to yield greater utility and reward in future.

Naudé cited projections that estimated a median of R259-billion will be lost over the next 35 years if climate action is not taken in South Africa.

“That's the value that gets destroyed if we don't act,” she warned.

Naudé said it was critical to try and mitigate the impacts of climate change on South Africa’s economy by moving fast and ambitiously.

“It should not come at the price of livelihoods or the health and well-being of people who earn a living in the fossil fuel industry right now. It should rather represent an opportunity to improve the lives of many South Africans if done right,” she said.

Overall, however, Naudé believed that the mindset of investors should be shifted away from climate risk to climate opportunity, which would lead to economic growth in the long run.