Addressing fragmentation in the South African renewable energy governance effort: Lessons to be learnt from France

Authors

  • Romain Mauger Faculty of Law, University of Montpellier, France and Faculty of Law, North-West University, South Africa http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5085-7518
  • Michelle Barnard Faculty of Law, North-West University, South Africa

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17159/2413-3051/2018/v29i1a1661

Keywords:

legal framework, energy transition, legal and institutional integration, energy law, environmental law

Abstract

The drive towards increased renewable energy generation and its application in South Africa are codified in a variety of policy documents and pieces of legislation, which together embody the national renewable energy legal framework. In many instances these legal instruments differ in terms of the nature of the field of law influencing their objectives and the governmental department of their origin. This situation is generically labelled as fragmentation and is widely seen as a hindrance to the achievement of the Constitutional objective of promoting sustainable development in South Africa. By necessary implication, integration is proposed as the solution to fragmentation and it is in this regard that this study puts forward the French approach to legal and institutional integration as a possibility for South Africa. The study presents the French energy transition legal framework for consideration by the South African legislature as a potential roadmap towards a more holistic and integrated renewable energy governance effort. In pursuing this objective, the study discusses the suitability of the French approach in the South African context and concludes that a hybrid of the French governance framework could fruitfully be applied locally.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

French legislation

Decree 71-94 of 1971. Décret n° 71-94 du 2 février 1971 relatif aux attributions du ministre délégué auprès du Premier ministre, chargé de la protection de la nature et de l’environnement.

Decree 2007-995 of 2007. Décret n° 2007-995 du 31 mai 2007 relatif aux attributions du ministre d’Etat, ministre de l’écologie, du développement et de l’aménagement durables.

Decree 2010-1443 of 2010. Décret n° 2010-1443 du 25 novembre 2010 relatif aux attributions du ministre de l’écologie, du développement durable, des transports et du logement.

Decree 2012-772 of 2012. Décret n° 2012-772 du 24 mai 2012 relatif aux attributions du ministre de l’écologie, du développement durable et de l’énergie.

Decree 2014-401 of 2014. Décret n° 2014-401 du 16 avril 2014 relatif aux attributions du ministre de l’écologie, du développement durable et de l’énergie.

Decree 2014-414 of 2014. Décret n° 2014-414 du 16 avril 2014 relatif aux attributions du ministre du logement et de l’égalité des territoires.

Decree 2017-1071 of 2017. Décret n° 2017-1071 du 24 mai 2017 relatif aux attributions du ministre d’Etat, ministre de la transition écologique et solidaire.

Electricity and Gas Public Service and Companies Act 2004-803 of 9 August 2004. Loi n° 2004-803 du 9 août 2004 relative au service public de l’électricité et du gaz et aux entreprises électriques et gazières, art. 24.

Environment Code. Code de l’environnement 2017, annoté et commenté, Dalloz, 20e édition.

Energy Transition towards Green Growth Act 2015-992 of 2015. Loi n° 2015-992 du 17 août 2015 relative à la transition énergétique pour la croissance verte.

Grenelle I Act 2009-967 of 2009. Loi n° 2009-967 du 3 août 2009 de programmation relative à la mise en œuvre du Grenelle de l’environnement.

Grenelle II Act 2010-788 of 2010. Loi n° 2010-788 du 12 juillet 2010 portant engagement national pour l’environnement.

South African Legislation

Electricity Act 41 of 1987. Government Gazette, 1 November 1987.

Gas Act 48 of 2001. Government Gazette, 21 February 2002.

Gas Regulator Levies Act 75 of 2002. Government Gazette, 15 January 2003.

Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act 28 of 2002. Government Gazette, 10 October 2002.

National Water Act 36 of 1998. Government Gazette, 26 August 1998.

National Environmental Management Act 107 of 1998. Government Gazette, 27 November 1998.

National Air Quality Act 39 of 2004. Government Gazette, 24 February 2005.

National Energy Regulator Act 40 of 2004.Government Gazette, 6 April 2005.

National Energy Act 34 of 2008. Government Gazette, 24 November 2008.

National Waste Management Act 59 of 2008. Government Gazette, 10 March 2009.

Institutional documents

Carbon Tax Draft Bill. 2015. Minister of Finance. Available at: https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/ 2016/06/Carbon-Tax-Draft-Bill-2015.pdf Accessed February 2018.

Department of Minerals and Energy, 2007. Biofuels industrial strategy for the Republic of South Africa. Available at: http://www.energy.gov.za/files/esources/ renewables/biofuels_indus_strat.pdf(2).pdf. Accessed February 2018.

Department of Energy, 2010. Medium-term risk mitigation project for electricity in South Africa (MTRMPESA) 2010 – 2016. Available at: http://www.doe-irp.co.za/content/medium_term_risk_mitigation_project_phase_1.pdf Accessed February 2018.

Department of Energy, 2011. Integrated Resource Plan for Electricity 2010–2030. Available at: http://www. energy.gov.za/IRP/irp%20files/IRP2010_2030_Final_Report_20110325.pdf Accessed February 2018.

Department of Energy and Department of National Treasury, 2011. Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme.

European Council 23 and 24 October 2014, Conclusions, 2030 Climate and energy policy framework, p. 5. Available at: http://www.consilium. europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/en/ec/145397.pdf Accessed August 2017.

European Union, 2014. 2030 framework for climate and energy policies. Available at: http://ec.europa.eu/ clima/policies/2030/index_en.htm. Accessed July 2015.

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), 2014. Climate change 2014: Mitigation of climate change. ‘Summary for Policymakers’. Figure SPM.2: 9. Available at: http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar5/wg3/ipcc_wg3_ar5_full.pdf Accessed November 2017.

International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), 2015. From baseload to peak: Renewables provide a reliable solution: 6. Available at: http://www.irena.org/ DocumentDownloads/Publications/IRENA_Baseload_to_Peak_2015.pdf Accessed July 2015.

National Climate Change Response Green Paper of 2010. Notice 1083 of 2010. Government Gazette, 25 November 2010.

National Climate Change Response White Paper of 2011. Available at: https://www.gov.za/sites/www. ov.za/files/national_climatechange_response_whitepaper_0.pdf Accessed February 2018.

National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA), 2009. Renewable Energy Feed-in-Tariff (REFIT). Regulatory guidelines. Available at: http://www .innovent.com.uy/site/content/legislacion/south_africa_renewable_energy_feed_in_tariff.pdf Accessed February 2018.

Réseau de Transport d’Électricité (RTE). 2016. Bilan prévisionnel de l’équilibre offre-demande d’électricité en France, édition 2016: 7. Available at: http://www. rte-france.com/sites/default/files/bp2016_complet_vf. pdf Accessed May 2017.

RTE. 2017. Bilan électrique 2016, Production, ‘Le parc progresse de près de 1 700 MW’. Available at: http:// bilan-electrique-2016.rte-france.com/production/le-parc-de-production-national/ Accessed May 2017.

Synthèse des travaux du débat national sur la transition énergétique de la France. 2013. Available at: https://www.ecologique-solidaire.gouv.fr/sites/default /files/Synth%C3%A8se%20du%20d%C3%A9bat%20national%20sur%20la%20transition%20%C3%A9nerg%C3%A9tique.pdf Accessed September 2017.

Journal articles

Barthelemy, C., Cloche-Dubois, C., Felizot, C., and Rubio, A.E. 2015. La loi sur la transition énergétique: déclaration d’intentions ou socle d’une transformation dirigée de l’économie française? Première partie. Droit de l’Environnement 11 (239): 388–397.

Davies, L.L. 2009. Alternative energy and the energy-environment disconnect. Idaho Law Review (46): 473-506.

Du Plessis, W. 2015. Energy efficiency and the law: A multi-disciplinary approach. South African Journal of Science (111): 1–8. https://doi.org/10.17159/ sajs.2015/20130302.

Laville, B. 2010. Du Ministère de l’Impossible au Ministère d’Etat. Revue française d’administration publique (134): 277, 278.

Kotzé, L.J. 2006. Improving unsustainable environmental governance in South Africa: A case for holistic governance. Potchefstroom Electronic Law Journal (9): 75–118.

Kotzé, L.J. 2009. Environmental governance. In Paterson, A., and Kotzé, L.J. (eds) Environmental Compliance and Enforcement in South Africa: Legal Perspectives. South Africa: Juta.

Murombo, T. 2015. Regulating energy in South Africa: Enabling sustainable energy by integrating energy and environmental regulation. Journal of Energy and Natural Resources Law 33 (4): 320–348. https://doi.org/10.1080/02646811.2015.1089113.

Musango, J.K., Amigun, B., and Brent, A.C. 2011. Sustainable energy generation technologies in South Africa: Initiatives, challenges and policy implications. Energy and Environmental Research 1 (1): 126. https://doi.org/10.5539/eer.v1n1p124.

Nel, D. 2015. Risks and barriers in renewable energy development in South Africa through independent power production. African Journal of Public Affairs 8 (1): 48–49.

Sablière, P. 2011. Un code en manque d’énergie. Actualité Juridique du Droit Administratif: 1427.

Online resources

Agency of State’s shares, Agence des Participations de l’Etat. The public shares. Available at: http://www. economie.gouv.fr/agence-participations-etat/Les-participations-publiques Accessed July 2015.

Garric, A. 2014. Les moyens pour atteindre la transition énergétique ne sont pas au rendez-vous. Le Monde. Available at: http://www.lemonde.fr/planete/article/ 2014/06/18/les-moyens-pour-atteindre-la-transition-energetique-ne-sont-pas-au-rendez-vous_4440415 _3244.html Accessed July 2015.

Glazewski, J. 2006. The legal framework for renewable energy in South Africa. Available at: http://www.un. org/esa/sustdev/sdissues/energy/op/parliamentarian_forum/glazewski_re_sa.pdf. Accessed November 2017.

Glazewski, J., Gilder, A., and Swanepoel, E. 2012. Carbon capture and storage (CCS): Towards a regulatory and legal regime in South Africa. Report for the Institute of Marine and Environmental Law and African Climate and Development Initiative. University of Cape Town, Cape Town. Available at: http://www.imel.uct.ac.za/usr/law/imel/downloads/CCS_Report.pdf Accessed November 2017.

Gossement, A. 2012. Fessenheim: il faudra bien une loi. Gossement Avocats. Available at: http://www. arnaudgossement.com/archive/2012/10/21/fessenheim-il-faudra-bien-une-loi.html Accessed July 2015.

Downloads

Published

2018-03-23

How to Cite

Mauger, R., & Barnard, M. (2018). Addressing fragmentation in the South African renewable energy governance effort: Lessons to be learnt from France. Journal of Energy in Southern Africa, 29(1), 24–33. https://doi.org/10.17159/2413-3051/2018/v29i1a1661