SA-TIED Work in progress Workshop on Water, Energy, Food, and Climate Change

On 8 May, SA-TIED hosted its first author work-in-progress workshop of the year for Workstream 5 at the Development Bank of Southern Africa in Midrand. The event brought together researchers who are in the final stages of preparing Working Papers that address the intricate challenges and opportunities at the nexus of water, energy, food, and climate change.

The workshop, a key initiative of the "water-energy-food in the context of climate change" workstream of the SA-TIED Project, aimed to foster knowledge sharing and collaboration among the researchers. This project is a joint effort involving the Centre for Sustainability Transitions (CST), National Treasury RSA, the National Planning Commission, the Presidential Climate Commission, and the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA). Attendees engaged in the exchange of research strategies, expected outcomes, and timelines, striving to enhance their collective understanding and develop a cohesive narrative.

Key highlights from the workshop included discussions on anticipated climate shifts in southern Africa, with a specific focus on the impacts on water, food, and energy sectors. Notably, the Global Change Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand is preparing an upcoming climate change impacts paper that will contribute to bolstering climate resilience planning. Additionally, CST PhD candidate Mlondi Ndovela provided valuable updates on the GEMMES South Africa macro-economic modeling tool, which aims to integrate finance with a climate change damage factor.

Agenda

10:00     Arrival and Coffee

10:15     Welcome & apologies     Chair

10:20     Adoption of the agenda     All

10:25     Introducing Anton Cartwright & Andrew Boraine (Water theme)     Mark Swilling

10:35     Reflecting on 2023: publications, lessons learnt, feedback from inter-workstream meeting (19 March 2024)     Chair

11:00     Updates & timeline of Energy work (20 mins) + Q&A (10 mins)     Dirk Monstert

11:30     Presentation of Climate Change Impacts paper (20 mins) + Q&A (10 mins)     Francois Engelbrecht

12:00     Coffee break/leg stretch

12:15     Developments & updates on South Africa’s Hybrid Climate Economy model (20 mins) + Q&A (10 mins)     Mlondi Ndovela

12:45     Capacity building plans for Hybrid Climate Economy model     Adel Bosch

13:00     Reflecting on Water themed journal article     Anton Cartwright & Mark Swilling

13:15     Lunch

14:15     Updates & timeline of Food paper (20 mins) + Q&A (10 mins)     Odi Selomane

14:45     2024 Workplan highlights       Alboricah Rathupetsane & Mark Swilling

15:20     Preliminary plans for Water Dialogue     Andrew Boraine

15:35     Updates on Water Reforms & Climate Finance papers     Natalie van Reenen & Georgina Ryan

15:50     Overall deliverables & timelines for 2024     Chair

16:10     Decision on Workshop 2 date (Stellenbosch)     All

16:20     Closing remarks     Chair

Departure