The Climate Policy Landscape and Fossil Fuel Phase-out in South Africa.
The burning of fossil fuels causes climate change. The most effective way of addressing climate change is through leaving fossil fuels underground. This thesis studies the scarcely addressed the 1) challenges with leaving fossil fuel underground for emerging economies like South Africa from an inclusive development perspective and 2) role of states, investors, and shareholders of fossil fuel firms in climate policy implementation through stranded assets and foreign fossil-investments. Following a multi-method research design with a literature review, qualitative content analysis of policy documents, and interviews involving experts, a case study on fossil fuels and a sub-case study on oil and gas in South Africa was conducted to determine how the climate policy landscape governs an inclusive fossil fuel phase-out in emerging economies in general and South Africa in particular, paying specific attention to stranded assets and foreign investments in oil and gas in a North-South context. National policies reveal that South Africa promotes hydrocarbon development and thus seemingly welcomes foreign hydrocarbon finance and does not inclusively govern stranded assets because of a) a marginal focus on social and human stranded assets and b) no focus on natural, physical, and financial stranded assets. Sustainability reports reveal that investors and shareholders do not prohibit hydrocarbon finance in emerging economies and do not inclusively govern stranded assets because of a) a focus on their own and clients’ financial transition risk and b) no focus on natural, physical, social, human, financial stranded assets for emerging economies. Hence, the climate policy landscape hinders inclusively LFFU in emerging economies like South Africa. The author recommends that banks and investment management firms must take a bigger responsibility for leaving fossil fuels underground in emerging economies by a) stopping hydrocarbon finance, b) setting LFFU-conditions in client engagement, c) directing finance to justice elements and stranded assets.