Securing South Africa’s Just Energy future: Governing the water-energy-food nexus in environmental law

Camagu Luvo Ngubevana, Lwazi Ngubevana

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Abstract

The Just Energy Transition (JET) framework places justice, equity, and systemic inclusion at the centre of South Africa’s shift toward a low-carbon economy, grounded in distributive, restorative, and procedural justice. However, an implementation gap persists due to fragmented governance and inadequate understanding of interdependencies between water, energy, and food systems, collectively recognised as the water-energy-food (WEF) nexus. Although the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process under the National Environmental Management Act 107 of 1998 is constitutionally mandated by Section 24, it remains project-specific and reactive. The paper assesses the suitability of project-level EIA for governing the WEF impacts of the JET and proposes a proportionate framework comprising WEF nexus screening within the existing environmental screening process, risk-based escalation to further assessment, selective use of Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA), structured cooperative governance and improved access to information.

Keywords
Just Energy Transition, water-energy-food nexus, environmental impact assessment, strategic environmental assessment, South African environmental law