South Africa: Today and tomorrow, SALGA is collaborating with USAID – US Agency for International Development Southern Africa Energy Program (SAEP) to provide technical assistance and capacity building to aid SALGA’s efforts to support municipalities in managing existing energy infrastructure, increasing electricity access, introducing novel energy solutions and initiating the Just Energy Transition (JET).
The two-day session taking place in Mbombela at The Capital seeks to support municipalities in Mpumalanga to increase their awareness and understanding of JET, know how to integrate it into municipal plans and see the opportunities presented by the just energy transition.
The SAEP will work with Mpumalanga municipalities to gauge their current understanding and integration of JET principles in municipal policies and programs, then roll out tools and resources to facilitate better municipal JET integration.
The training programme will consist of three (3) separate workshops, each focusing on a specific topic and the development of a JET Municipal Toolkit, which will be used during the workshops, and municipalities can continue to use it after the completion of the workshops.
The content to be covered will be specific to the context of the South African energy sector, including the existing national frameworks (JET and Climate Change) but will include insights and learnings from other energy transitions around the world.
SAEP has partnered with relevant organizations, including SALGA, the Mpumalanga Green Cluster Agency, and the Mpumalanga Department of Agriculture, Rural Development, Land and Environmental Affairs ( Dardlea7), to present at these workshops.