Green Economy in South Africa and Its Impact on Sustainable Economic Development

Abstract

This paper seeks to identify the effects of the green economy inSouth Africa, the opportunities it presents, the associated challenges, andhow the green economy policies can achieve sustainable development.South Africa’s transition to a green economy will lead to a number ofinvestment incentives towards the creation of a large number of greenjobs, up to 300,000 over the next 10 years. This is in addition toincreasing investments in the public and private sectors, providing anenabling environment for infrastructure development and enterpriserestructuring. This is expected to result in a much larger share of greensectors in the production output of the national economy, a significantreduction in energy and material intensities of production process, as wellas significantly reduced waste, pollution and greenhouse-gas emissions.