Improving energy efficiency in public buildings and infrastructure in South Africa

Context

South Africa’s reliance on coal-based electricity and the inefficient use of energy results in the nation ranking amongst the globe’s highest greenhouse gas (GHG) emitters. South Africa, like the rest of the continent, remains susceptible to the impacts of climate change, which are compounded by poverty and financial and technological constraints.

One of the country’s measures to mitigate the impacts of climate change is to transform energy efficiency within public buildings and infrastructure. The implementation of such initiatives, however, faces challenges such as access to capital, limited institutional programme support structures, along with skills and capacity constraints.

Objective

The South African Government is taking steps to reduce the country’s GHG emissions and energy use by catalysing an energy efficiency transformation within the public-sector environment.

Approach

The programme aims to support public institutions in developing bankable energy efficiency projects in public buildings, public lighting and wastewater treatment sectors. These projects will be tendered out to private energy service companies (ESCOs) under an energy performance contracting model in order to leverage technical expertise and financing.

The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) is the lead implementing partner, with the Office of the Presidency as the political partner. The Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) provides support on the financial component of the programme. The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH acts on behalf of the Mitigation Action Facility and provides technical assistance to the overall programme.

The programme includes technical assistance on project preparation, capacity development and monitoring and evaluation, in addition to financial assistance by establishing a partial credit guarantee at IDC, a local development finance institution.

Last update: July 2023