IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pclm00/0000205.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Varieties of just transition: Public support in South Africa’s Mpumalanga coal community for different policy options

Author

Listed:
  • Nthabiseng Mohlakoana
  • Muhammed Lokhat
  • Nives Dolšak
  • Aseem Prakash

Abstract

Decarbonization creates a global public good but imposes costs on specific communities such as those employed in the fossil fuel supply chain. “Just Transition” (JT) policies that compensate cost-bearing communities are expected to build political support for decarbonization. In developing countries, JT policies are often financed by foreign aid and managed by governmental actors. To assess public support for JT, we identify four policy types, depending on whether they target individuals or the local government or community, and how quickly individuals receive benefits. These are: individual compensation (individual, quick), financial support to local governments (community, quick), individual reskilling (individual, delayed), and upgrading local infrastructure (community, delayed). To assess public preferences about JT policies, we focus on South Africa which has a large coal mining sector. Our in-depth interviews with 51 coal miners, Eskom power plant workers, and community members in Mpumalanga province reveal that most interviewees favor monetary compensation which provides direct support to individuals in a short period of time. Moreover, given the low trust in the government, interviewees do not want government or the labor unions to administer the JT funds. Instead, they favor independent actors, such as NGOs and the judiciary, to oversee JT disbursal.

Suggested Citation

  • Nthabiseng Mohlakoana & Muhammed Lokhat & Nives Dolšak & Aseem Prakash, 2023. "Varieties of just transition: Public support in South Africa’s Mpumalanga coal community for different policy options," PLOS Climate, Public Library of Science, vol. 2(5), pages 1-17, May.
  • Handle: RePEc:plo:pclm00:0000205
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pclm.0000205
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/climate/article?id=10.1371/journal.pclm.0000205
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/climate/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pclm.0000205&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000205?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Eakin, Hallie & Keele, Svenja & Lueck, Vanessa, 2022. "Uncomfortable knowledge: Mechanisms of urban development in adaptation governance," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    2. Aseem Prakash & Matthew Potoski, 2006. "Racing to the Bottom? Trade, Environmental Governance, and ISO 14001," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 50(2), pages 350-364, April.
    3. Harrahill, Kieran & Douglas, Owen, 2019. "Framework development for ‘just transition’ in coal producing jurisdictions," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    4. Ruggie, John Gerard, 1982. "International regimes, transactions, and change: embedded liberalism in the postwar economic order," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 36(2), pages 379-415, April.
    5. Citrin, Jack, 1974. "Comment: The Political Relevance of Trust in Government," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 68(3), pages 973-988, September.
    6. Eskeland, Gunnar S. & Harrison, Ann E., 2003. "Moving to greener pastures? Multinationals and the pollution haven hypothesis," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(1), pages 1-23, February.
    7. Gaikwad, Nikhar & Genovese, Federica & Tingley, Dustin, 2022. "Creating Climate Coalitions: Mass Preferences for Compensating Vulnerability in the World’s Two Largest Democracies," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 116(4), pages 1165-1183, November.
    8. Todd Sandler, 1998. "Global and regional public goods: a prognosis for collective action," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 19(3), pages 221-247, August.
    9. Oyewo, Ayobami Solomon & Solomon, A.A. & Bogdanov, Dmitrii & Aghahosseini, Arman & Mensah, Theophilus Nii Odai & Ram, Manish & Breyer, Christian, 2021. "Just transition towards defossilised energy systems for developing economies: A case study of Ethiopia," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 176(C), pages 346-365.
    10. Frank Convery, 2009. "Origins and Development of the EU ETS," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 43(3), pages 391-412, July.
    11. Adolph, Christopher & Quince, Vanessa & Prakash, Aseem, 2017. "The Shanghai Effect: Do Exports to China Affect Labor Practices in Africa?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 1-18.
    12. William Easterly, 2003. "Can Foreign Aid Buy Growth?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 17(3), pages 23-48, Summer.
    13. Laura Zanotti, 2010. "Cacophonies of Aid, Failed State Building and s in Haiti: setting the stage for disaster, envisioning the future," Third World Quarterly, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(5), pages 755-771.
    14. Michaël Aklin & Matto Mildenberger, 2020. "Prisoners of the Wrong Dilemma: Why Distributive Conflict, Not Collective Action, Characterizes the Politics of Climate Change," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 20(4), pages 4-27, Autumn.
    15. Della Bosca, Hannah & Gillespie, Josephine, 2018. "The coal story: Generational coal mining communities and strategies of energy transition in Australia," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 734-740.
    16. Channing Arndt & Finn Tarp, 2017. "Aid, Environment and Climate Change," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(2), pages 285-303, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mohamed Boly, 2018. "CO 2 mitigation in developing countries: the role of foreign aid," Working Papers halshs-01740881, HAL.
    2. John S. Ahlquist & Layna Mosley, 2021. "Firm participation in voluntary regulatory initiatives: The Accord, Alliance, and US garment importers from Bangladesh," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 16(2), pages 317-343, April.
    3. Zeng, Ka & Eastin, Joshua, 2012. "Do Developing Countries Invest Up? The Environmental Effects of Foreign Direct Investment from Less-Developed Countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(11), pages 2221-2233.
    4. Réka Juhász & Nathan Lane, 2024. "The Political Economy of Industrial Policy," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 38(4), pages 27-54, Fall.
    5. Jonas Gamso, 2018. "Trade-based adoption of voluntary environmental programs in the developing world: Racing to the top or stuck in the mud?," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 51(4), pages 515-543, December.
    6. Jeffrey A. Frankel & Andrew K. Rose, 2005. "Is Trade Good or Bad for the Environment? Sorting Out the Causality," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 87(1), pages 85-91, February.
    7. Isaksson, Ann-Sofie & Kotsadam, Andreas, 2018. "Racing to the bottom? Chinese development projects and trade union involvement in Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 284-298.
    8. Grischa Perino & Johannes Jarke-Neuert & Felix Schenuit & Martin Wickel & Cathrin Zengerling, 2022. "Closing the Implementation Gap: Obstacles in Reaching Net-Zero Pledges in the EU and Germany," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 10(3), pages 213-225.
    9. Hielscher Stefan, 2008. "Die Sachs-Easterly-Kontroverse: „Dissent on Development” Revisited – Eine ordonomische Analyse zur Interdependenz von Sozialstruktur und Semantik moderner Entwicklungspolitik / The Sachs-Easterly-Cont," ORDO. Jahrbuch für die Ordnung von Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, De Gruyter, vol. 59(1), pages 441-474, January.
    10. Gabor, Daniela & Braun, Benjamin, 2023. "Green macrofinancial regimes," SocArXiv 4pkv8, Center for Open Science.
    11. Schaffer, Lena Maria & Magyar, Zsuzsanna, 2023. "Comparative Energy Transition Policy: How Exposure, Policy Vulnerability and Trust affect Popular Acceptance of Policy Expansion," OSF Preprints 8cquz, Center for Open Science.
    12. Kamila Svobodova & John R. Owen & Deanna Kemp & Vítězslav Moudrý & Éléonore Lèbre & Martin Stringer & Benjamin K. Sovacool, 2022. "Decarbonization, population disruption and resource inventories in the global energy transition," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-16, December.
    13. Grischa Perino & Johannes Jarke-Neuert & Felix Schenuit & Martin Wickel & Cathrin Zengerling, 2022. "Closing the Implementation Gap: Obstacles in Reaching Net-Zero Pledges in the EU and Germany," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 10(3), pages 213-225.
    14. Muzhou Zhang, 2023. "Trade and the government underfunding of environmental innovation," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 13(4), pages 575-586, December.
    15. Mattia Ubaldo & Steven McGuire & Vikrant Shirodkar, 2022. "Voluntary programs and emissions revisited: What is the effect of EU trade agreements with environmental provisions?," Journal of International Business Policy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 5(4), pages 467-489, December.
    16. Sijeong Lim & Victor Menaldo & Aseem Prakash, 2015. "Foreign aid, economic globalization, and pollution," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 48(2), pages 181-205, June.
    17. Nahyun Kim & Junxiu Sun & Haitao Yin & Jon Jungbien Moon, 2022. "Do foreign firms help make local firms greener? Evidence of environmental spillovers in China," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 53(7), pages 1370-1393, September.
    18. Hielscher, Stefan, 2008. "Die Sachs-Easterly-Kontroverse: "Dissent on Development" revisited," Discussion Papers 2008-6, Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg, Chair of Economic Ethics.
    19. Eric M. Uslaner, 2007. "Tax Evasion, Corruption, and the Social Contract in Transition," International Center for Public Policy Working Paper Series, at AYSPS, GSU paper0725, International Center for Public Policy, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University.
    20. George S. Chen & Emmanuel Kwaku Manu & Dennis Asante, 2023. "Achieving environmental sustainability in Africa: The role of financial institutions development on carbon emissions," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(5), pages 3272-3290, October.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pclm00:0000205. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: climate (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/climate .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.