The South Africa-UK Partnering for Accelerated Climate Transitions (SA-UK PACT) programme has announced that it will fund ten local projects to the tune of more than £3-million. 

The aim is to help South Africa transition to a low-carbon, inclusive, climate-resilient economy and society.

The funding approved for one of these, uYilo eMobility Programme’s Shifting the Transport Paradigm for South Africa (STRAPSA) project, will be used to build capacity of key role-players and decision-makers, as well as provide technical assistance.

The project is in support of the Department of Transport’s Green Transport Strategy, which includes the promotion of hybrid and electric vehicles (EVs).

“STRAPSA will develop the skills and knowledge of key role-players at a national level,” says uYilo director Hiten Parmar. 

“This will cover electric road transport and charging infrastructure, leveraging international best practices from our project partner Cenex. 

“South Africa will make further strides to a just and sustainable transition to electric mobility if key role-players and decision-makers have the supporting knowledge of the radically advancing technologies within the electric mobility ecosystem.”

“Sustainable transport is important and necessary to lower emissions and improve air quality,” adds Cenex CEO Robert Evans.

“Cenex is delighted to be working with uYilo in South Africa on this project. We look forward to sharing our experiences of the successes and failures in the UK with South Africa decision-makers, so that they can deliver effective low-carbon transport that meets the needs of all South Africans.”

UK PACT is a capacity-building programme funded by the UK government through its International Climate Finance portfolio at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. 

UK PACT works in partnership with countries that are eligible for official development assistance and have high emissions reduction potential. 

It supports them to implement and increase their ambitions for emissions reductions, in line with their nationally determined contributions and the long-term goal of the 2015 Paris Agreement to limit climate change.

“As host of the twenty-sixth United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) and a longstanding development, trade and investment partner, I am delighted that we are launching this range of projects aimed at supporting green, resilient and inclusive economic growth in South Africa,” says British High Commissioner to South Africa Nigel Casey. 

uYilo reports that emissions from the domestic transport sector account for 13% of South Africa’s total energy-related carbon dioxide emissions. 

The sector is the fastest growing source of South Africa’s greenhouse gas emissions, expanding by 44% between 2000 and 2015. 

Road transport accounts for more than 90% of this sector’s total emissions, with internal combustion engine vehicles, operating on fossil fuels (petrol and diesel), dominating all road transport modes in the country. 

The national uYilo Electric Mobility Programme was established in 2013 as a multistakeholder, collaborative programme focused on enabling, facilitating and mobilising electric mobility in South Africa. 

uYilo is an initiative of the Technology Innovation Agency, a public entity of the Department of Science and Innovation.

Cenex, established as the UK’s first Centre of Excellence for Low Carbon and Fuel Cell technologies in 2005, operates as an independent, not-for-profit research technology organisation and consultancy. 

Cenex and uYilo are founding partners of the Global Sustainable Mobility Partnership, a network of independent, not-for-profit organisations with experience in implementing low and zero emission mobility.