Southern Centre for Inequality Studies

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About the project

The project generates research and evidence for climate and social policy which supports climate justice and a transformative just transition. The project explores the intersections between inequality and climate change in the global South. The project conceptualises inequality broadly, including issues of economic inequality, as well as inequality associated with gender, race, ethnicity and geography.

Our work 

Ongoing Projects

The Care-Climate Nexus – This project has developed the conceptual understanding of the care-climate nexus by bringing together a group of leading feminist economists and climate experts working at this intersection, producing several think pieces and seminars on the topic as well as a detailed conceptual framework which you can access here. This project has progressed into the development of the African Care and Climate Innovation Alliance (ACACIA) Hub which is led by SCIS and Aga Khan University in Kenya. See more about the project at our website here.

Macro-fiscal impacts of transition – This project explores the macroeconomic implications of climate change and the just transition, including impacts on municipalities and structural transformation more broadly. The first working paper focuses on the energy transition in South Africa and can be found here.

Industrial Policy for a Just Transition in Africa – This project explores the implications of climate change, decarbonisation and the just transition on critical mineral extraction and industrialisation in South Africa, Ghana, Zambia, Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo. It will produce policy recommendations, a learning network, and country-specific reviews.

Care-Climate - Completed projects

Towards a gender just transition: Principles and perspectives from the Global South – This paper proposes a set of principles for a gender just transition, based on empirical literature from the global South and theoretical contributions by feminist scholars. Read the paper here.

Towards a Just Climate Financing Regime for the Just Energy Transition Investment Plan (JET IP) – This project was commissioned by COSATU to briefly review the JET IP and understand its implications for workers, propose an alternative set of principles and approaches to financing the just transition, and advocate for social ownership within the just transition. Read the paper here. We also produced a set of pamphlets in English and Sesotho which were distributed to union members.

Just Transition Consortium for Research on Employment and Work (JT CREW) – This consortium is funded by the Presidential Climate Commission and the African Climate Foundation. It is led by the SCIS and includes partners from the Centre for Researching Education and Learning (REAL) at Wits University and the Neil Aggett Labour Studies Unit and the Environmental Learning Research Centre at Rhodes University. It takes a holistic approach to understanding the labour market changes in the just transition. It examines the changing size, structure and income dynamics in the labour market, supports the  development of an appropriate skills strategy, and advances proposals for the adequate provision of social protections. This project is commissioned by the Presidential Climate Commission. You can watch the launch event recording online here.

  • Rogan et al. 2025. Understanding the future labour market: a microsimulation and distributive analysis. Read the paper here.
  • Presidential Climate Commission. 2025. Strengthening skills for a just transition: recommendations to support collaboration. Read the paper here.
  • Castel-Branco et al. 2025. Towards a comprehensive social protection system for a Just Transition in South Africa. Read the paper here.

Social ownership and inequality - This project examines how models of social ownership in the economy can be used to address both wealth and income inequality in post-apartheid South Africa in the context of a transition to a low-carbon economy.  Read the paper here. We also published a journal article which you can read here.

Gender in the Just Energy Transition in South Africa – This project develops a comprehensive analysis of gender dynamics in the low-carbon transition in South Africa, including gendered impacts of transition and opportunities in new green sectors. Read the paper here.

 

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