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Policy Briefs

  • Year 2024
  • Author(s) Gaylor Montmasson-Clair (TIPS)
Over its short history, the renewable energy and battery storage industrial value chain value chain has already gone through a boom and a bust. More recently, efforts have been underway to revive the value chain. This policy brief reviews the state of the renewable energy and battery storage value chain in…

  • Year 2024
  • Author(s) Seutame Maimele (TIPS)
This policy brief’s main intention is to create awareness for the affected stakeholders of the UK CBAM. The brief also touches on the issues faced by firms under the EU CBAM, and shows the similarities of the two mechanisms. After initial consultation in March 2023, the United Kingdom in December 2023 announced that…

  • Year 2024
  • Author(s) David Kaplan
The South African start-up sector has experienced significant growth over the past decade. However, the growth of start-ups in South Africa is still far from its potential. Growth elsewhere in Africa has, in recent years, been far more rapid. Once the leading country in Africa for investment in start-ups, South Africa has…

  • Year 2023
  • Author(s) Lesego Moshikaro (TIPS)
Renewable energy sources combined with energy storage play a vital role in South Africa's pursuit of energy security and achieving its net-zero objective by 2050. As South Africa grapples with a deepening energy crisis, energy storage technologies are gaining prominence, with batteries taking precedence in the short to medium term. Given the…

  • Year 2023
  • Author(s) Neva Makgetla (TIPS)
South Africa’s official responses to two far-reaching crises – the COVID-19 pandemic from 2020 and escalating loadshedding in 2022 – underscored a profound, albeit unacknowledged, ambivalence about industrial policy. That reality emerged even though the democratic state has consistently called for economic reconstruction. This policy brief summarises the divergent strategies, and…

  • Year 2022
  • Author(s) Lerato Monaisa
South Africa’s aluminium value chain begins with primary aluminium production, at the South32 (previously BHP Billiton) Hillside Aluminium smelter. Hillside is the only primary aluminium producer in South Africa and the largest in the Southern Hemisphere.This Policy Brief draws on a study on the climate compatibility of the South African aluminium value chain in South…

  • Year 2023
  • Author(s) Lerato Monaisa and Seutame Maimele (TIPS)
In 2019, the European Union (EU) introduced the Fit for 55 policy package. The policy package aims to reduce the EU’s net greenhouse gas emissions by 55% by 2030 compared to 1990 levels and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. It includes the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), a carbon border…

  • Year 2022
  • Author(s) Elize Hattingh and Ebenaezer Appies (TIPS)
Local Green Entrepreneurs (LGEs) are increasingly responding to climate change and conscious consumer demands for green products, technologies and services across all economic sectors. Small Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs) in South Africa are actively contributing to lowering carbon emissions by reducing their water usage, becoming more energy efficient, adopting…

  • Year 2022
  • Author(s) Max Smeiman, Nokwanda Maseko, Garth Strachan
This brief is based on the findings of a Transnet Rail Rolling Stock Localisation Study that had the following goals: To undertake an applied, independent, quantitative and qualitative research exercise to describe the prevailing economic and rail sector context; to map and analyse the existing domestic rail supply chain; to…

  • Author(s) Neva Makgetla (TIPS)
Concerns have arisen around the impact on waste pickers of recently gazetted draft regulations to limit the theft of metal from infrastructure by improving oversight over scrap dealers. An initial phase would ban exports of scrap for six months, followed by the implementation of new regulations imposing stricter rules on…
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